Washington’s February ballot has traditionally been dominated by school-related measures. And in Spokane County, at least, that will hold true again in 2024.
Thirty of the 34 measures filed with the county elections office are sponsored by school districts.
Two belong to Spokane Public Schools, a three-year replacement levy and six-year facilities bond issue. Superintendent Adam Swinyard says the mid-winter election is favored by districts because the ballot and campaign are less crowded than the primary and general elections.
“A February ballot, historically, has lended itself really well to us having a conversation with our community about public education,” he said. “Other election dates, there’s a lot of other, competing topics for people to think about and consider and weigh and discuss.”
Swinyard says the February ballot has become a tradition to which the voters in the county have become accustomed. Districts have claimed it as their opportunity to explain their funding situations without having to compete for voters’ attention with candidates running for office.
“I do think that public education funding can be confusing at times and that’s a collective effort to educate, share factual information,” Swinyard said. “If you had the superintendent, Travis Hanson, sitting here from Mead, you would probably be hearing very similar thoughts and comments about what his levies fund and so I think that collective conversation helps build community awareness.”
Sixteen other Spokane County districts, including Mead, are also presenting ballot measures to voters in February. Mead is submitting only one item, a replacement levy, to voters. Most of the others have two, property tax levies for operations and bond issues or capital levies for facilities.
Two of the four non-education-related measures were submitted by the city of Spokane, a renewal of the library’s tax levy and proposed replacements to the city charter regarding political redistricting.
Early elections were once popular in Idaho as well, but earlier this year, the legislature abolished the state’s March election, despite protests from superintendents. Supporters argued turnout in those elections are low and that school measures should be decided in elections that draw the highest number of voters, in May and November.
