As the dust settles on this year’s historic election, here’s a precinct-by-precinct breakdown of how Lawrence and Douglas County voted in races from U.S. president to the city ballot question to increase the affordable housing sales tax.

Starting at the top of our ballots …

U.S. President: Harris 67.5%, Trump 29.8%

Not surprisingly, Lawrence’s blue core voted heavily for Vice President Kamala Harris. But as maps below will show, this race could have been a lot redder in the rural parts of the county.

The largest margin by which Harris won any precinct was 85.5%, with 92.7% of the vote in Lawrence 40, an East Lawrence precinct. The largest margin by which President-elect Donald Trump won any Douglas County precinct was 19.5%, with 59.7% of the vote in South Baldwin 62.

A negative win margin on the map means that Harris lost the precinct.

The numbers in these maps show that the reddest red precincts are generally not as strongly Republican-voting as the bluest precincts in Lawrence are Democrat-voting, but these maps needed the bold colors to clearly differentiate the vote totals.

Overall, Kansas voted 57% for Trump (741,464 votes) and 41% for Harris (531,989 votes).

Looking at Douglas County over the past three presidential elections, 2016 was a bit of an oddball with 9.5% of the vote going to minor party candidates and write-ins ("Other" on the pie chart below). Both major party candidates made gains in 2020: Biden/Harris in 2020 received about 5% more of the vote than Clinton/Kaine in 2016, and Trump received about 2% more of the vote than he did in 2016. The "other" vote shrunk to 2.4%.

This year, Harris/Walz received about 1% less than Biden/Harris, Trump received about half a percent more than he did in 2020, and "Other" votes increased to 2.7%.

Douglas County Commission: 4 Democrats elected

Douglas County voters in 2022 voted by a margin of roughly 61% to 39% to expand the commission from three to five seats. Many rural residents hoped the expansion would mean more rural representation on the commission, though it was impossible in drawing the districts to create a district that did not include any portion of Lawrence.

Last week, voters selected four Democrats — incumbents Shannon Reid (District 2) and Karen Willey (District 3) both kept their seats; Gene Dorsey, of Lawrence (District 4) and Erica Anderson, of unincorporated Douglas County (District 5) will join the commission in January in their newly created districts. The four bested their opponents, Independent Brad Chun and Republicans Pam McDermott, Timothy Bruce and Rich Lorenzo, respectively.

But this map compared to the presidential map indicates that the rural precincts are a bit redder than one might expect looking solely at the presidential election.

The divide in these races was larger than the presidential race. There is no purple on this chart because none of the precincts' votes came close enough to fall within a 3% margin. The smallest margin between the two parties in any precinct was about 6% between Lorenzo and Anderson in Northwest Baldwin 60.

Dorsey received the top 6 highest percentages of precincts' votes for any Democratic candidates, with up to 88.1% of the vote in Lawrence 34, part of southeastern Lawrence. Bruce received the top percentage of a precinct's votes for the Republicans and Independent candidates, with 67.2% of the vote in West Eudora 50. 

Those gray precincts in Lawrence belong to District 1, the seat currently held by Commissioner Patrick Kelly. It will be on voters' ballots again in 2026.

Libertarian candidates Steve Jacob and Kirsten Kuhn received 743 and 639 votes in Districts 4 and 5, but this map was unable to show those votes.

Here are the final pie charts for these four races:

District attorney: Despite first Republican run in 20 years, Democrat wins

For the first time in 20 years, a Republican, Mike Warner, filed to run for Douglas County district attorney.

Ultimately, Democrat Dakota Loomis — who won the primary in August over incumbent Suzanne Valdez and runner-up Tonda Hill — took 64.5% of the vote, and Warner took 35.4%. 

Here's the final pie chart for this race:

How Lawrence voted:

Question 1: Changing the form of government

This ballot question got a little confusing. If voters had approved this change (more “yes” votes than “no”), the five-member city commission would have become a six-member city council with a directly elected, nonvoting mayor. Four of the council seats would have represented districts that have yet to be drawn; the other two and the mayor would have been elected at large.

You can read much more about it at this link, but Lawrence voters turned it down by a slim margin of 51% to 49%, so it's not going to happen.

Here's how that vote played out in precincts:

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Question 2: Increasing the affordable housing sales tax

With voters’ approval of this change (more “yes” votes than “no”), the city’s affordable housing sales tax will double (from .05% to .1%) and also support homelessness programs. The change will add an extra nickel per $100 spent in Lawrence.

You can read more about that at this link.

The two maps aren't quite opposites of each other, but a lot of the precincts that voted in favor of one question voted against the other. Move the slider left and right to see how the maps compare:

Here are the final pie charts for these two votes:

Who voted on what?

Altogether, 906 more Lawrence voters answered the city's question about increasing the affordable housing sales tax (39,092 total votes) than answered Question 1 about the change to the form of government (38,186 votes). (That's counting both "yes" and "no" votes.)

Some had anticipated before the election that people might skip over Question 1 just because the ballot question was relatively so vague. Although many precincts did see more voters answering Question 2, some went far in the other direction.

On this map, red indicates that the percentages of people voting on the two ballot questions were about the same. Yellow and orange shades indicate that a greater percentage of a precinct's voters cast ballots with a vote on Question 1, regarding the change in form of government. Purple shades indicate that a greater percentage of voters answered Question 2, regarding the sales tax increase, but not Question 1.

In two precincts on the far western and far eastern sides of town, up to 55% and 60% more voters filled in a circle on Question 1 than on Question 2. And Lawrence 21 — the precinct northeast of Bob Billings and Iowa, near KU's campus — 42.3% more voters answered Question 2 than Question 1.

Finally: Voter turnout in Douglas County

Douglas County's in-person early voters shattered turnout records this year. Voters had already broken the record ahead of the final Saturday of early voting.

Stats available the morning of Election Day gave the final total of early in-person votes cast — 20,946, or roughly a quarter of the county’s 83,165 registered voters.

However, total turnout hit 69%, which didn't quite break the 2020 record of 73.1%. Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew had predicted the overall turnout would be around 56,000 to 57,000, or around 68%, which would be the county’s second-largest participation in an election.

Congratulations to West Wakarusa Precinct 66, where more than 500 voters achieved nearly 97% voter turnout.

No results are official until the general election canvass, which is set for 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 18. The canvass is open to the public at the elections office, 711 W. 23rd St. Suite 1 in Lawrence.

Voter registration has reopened in Kansas. Douglas County voters can get registered quickly online at KSVotes.org. They can also register via a paper form at the historic courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St., or the elections office at 711 W. 23rd St., near 23rd and Louisiana streets.

Read more about voter registration and get a heads up for Election 2025 at this link.

P.S. Here's a gentle nudge: We've received a lot of very helpful feedback, but we'd love to hear from more of you about our 2024 election guide.

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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

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