Revised tally narrows margin of lieutenant governor win

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Republican Peter Kinder's razor-thin margin of victory in the recent election for lieutenant governor got a bit thinner on Tuesday with the release of amended vote totals.

With another 4,296 votes tallied, Kinder now sits just 14,583 votes ahead of Democrat Bekki Cook out of 2.65 million cast. The revised, but still unofficial, result trimmed 1,672 votes from Kinder's election night lead.

Even before the revised result, the contest between the two Cape Girardeau residents was by far the tightest for the statewide offices on the Nov. 2 ballot.

The updated figures had negligible impact on the percentage of the overall vote each candidate received. Rounded figures still put Kinder with 49 percent and Cook with 48.4 percent.

The changes are the outcome of amended results local election officials have provided to the secretary of state's office. State elections director Betsy Byers said only about 10 counties haven't yet submitted their final results.

The statewide results of all contests decided in the general elections should be certified within the next week, Byers said.

Cook has picked up 2,921 additional votes compared to 1,249 for Kinder.

A combined 126 votes were added to the totals of Libertarian Mike Ferguson of Belton and Constitution Party candidate Bruce Hillis of Dexter.

The extra votes primarily came in small bunches from about two dozen counties. Kansas City provided the bulk of the votes, adding 2,230 to Cook's total and 453 to Kinder's.

The revised vote totals: Kinder, 1,298,866; Cook, 1,284,283; Ferguson, 53,665; and Hillis, 15,926.

mpowers@semissourian.com

(573) 635-4608