JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. — The Johnson County Board of Canvassers voted to accept the recount of Kansas’ abortion amendment from the Aug. 2 primary ballot.

Recounts of election results in eight of nine Kansas counties appear to confirm voters soundly rejected removing abortion rights from the state’s constitution.

The deadline for the recount was due Saturday.

A difference of 54 votes was discovered during the recount, which is 0.0002% of the total number of ballots cast, according to a release from the Johnson County Election Office.

Originally, 79,818 people voted yes on Amendment 2 while 174,933 no votes were submitted. The recount totals show 79,798 votes for yes and 174,915 votes for no.

“We appreciate the work of Elections Office staff and the bipartisan group of volunteers,” Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said.

“Many of them have been contributing 40+ hours a week since mid-June helping make this election in Johnson County a success.

The Johnson County Canvass board originally certified the primary election results on August 15, and began the process of recounting 256,869 ballots cast on the amendment the next day.

Elsewhere in the state, a Sedgwick County spokeswoman said Saturday that after the counting was complete, the election commissioner found things she wanted to check again. It was unclear what the problems were or when the county would finish its recount.

The nine counties were required to hand recount the votes at the request of two anti-abortion activists who questioned election procedures but did not provide proof of any specific problems.

Initial statewide tallies showed the proposed amendment, which would have removed protections for abortion rights from the Kansas Constitution and allowed the Legislature to further restrict abortion or ban it, failed by 18 percentage points, or 165,000 votes.