More than 26% of Spokane County voters have returned their ballots for next Tuesday’s special election. That ballot includes levies from 14 school districts.
Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said the early turnout could be an indication that the historic participation in the 2020 election is carrying forward.
“Here we are with a week to go and we’re already at 26%,” she said. “That shows voters are still interested.”
Dalton said the turnout for a special election is usually a little over 30%, but some past special elections have had turnouts that were much lower. She anticipates this time it could exceed 40%.
Almost every school district in the county has a levy on the ballot. Most, like Deer Park, are asking voters to approve a replacement levy that would support school operations. Travis Hanson, who is Deer Park’s superintendent, says his district would use the levy to pay nurses, custodians and other workers or for extracurricular activities.
He says Deer Park and most other districts have tried to be conscious of the financial hardships most taxpayers are going through. Deer Park is one of several districts that are asking voters to renew an expiring three-year levy that pays for employees and programs.
“The cycle is what it is, and unfortunately it fell during this rotten set of circumstances we’re all living in,” Hanson said. “But again, we tried to be really sensitive to that and make sure we kept the rate flat and understand that and wanted to make sure we kept rates flat and we understood the everybody’s having to tighten their belt a bit.”
Several districts, including West Valley, Freeman and Cheney, are asking for two levies this election, one for school operations and a second for capital projects.
Randy Russell, the superintendent at Freeman, said the district’s capital levy will pay for a new heating and ventilation system in the middle school and for other maintenance projects. He said the two levies will equal what the district has asked for in the past.
“We absolutely want to be and I think have been extremely sensitive to our families,” he said. “Some of them have endured hardship, loss of job, loss of hours. Certainly that’s had a financial impact for their families. We’ve been sensitive and how we’ve done that is by asking for a straight replacement.”
Voters must have their ballots postmarked by Feb. 9 or drop them off at a white ballot box before 8 p.m. on Election Day.
