Levy vote still tight but heading toward passage

The local school levy was passing by a better margin after vote tallies continued Tuesday in the four county election offices involved, with more ballots yet to count in two counties Thursday and Friday.

With a total vote so far tallied at 630-571 in favor, Grand Coulee Dam School District’s Proposition No. 1 was winning in all counties but Grant by 52.46% of the vote as of 6:13 p.m. Tuesday night.

That 4.92% margin had slimmed down from 5.66% an hour earlier after Grant County counted another batch of ballots, bringing their uncounted estimate down from 4,500 to 2,900 last night.

Those estimates do not include ballots that election offices might continue to receive in the mail with a postmark on or before Election Day or ballots with signature issues that must be corrected before they can be counted.

District Superintendent Paul Turner said Tuesday election officials told him verifying signatures is taking time.

With 1,201 ballots on the measure counted so far, it’s only losing in Grant County, and by only 3.24%, 271-254.

Grant County is set to resume the count at 7 p.m. tonight (Nov. 16), the same night Lincoln County resumes its count of 285 remaining ballots at 4 p.m.

Douglas County, with about 900 left, picks up the count at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Okanogan County will resume the count of its remaining 2,400 ballots at 6 p.m. the same night.

County canvassing boards must certify and send election results to the secretary of state’s office on Nov. 29.

If it passes, the levy will impose about $2 per thousand dollars of assessed value on property in the district. The expiring levies it replaces are taking about $4.20 per thousand.

The educational levy seeks to collect $721,000 in 2023, $636,000 less than three expiring levies are collecting in 2022.

The new levy then seeks to collect $775,500 in 2024, and $814,000 in 2025 as increases in total district property value are anticipated.

In 2022, the total valuation in the school district, spanning properties in Grant, Okanogan, Douglas, and Lincoln counties and excluding senior exempt properties, is $335,543,725, an increase of $27,740,468 from 2021, about an 8% gain in taxable value.

In total, levy passage would bring in $4.4 million over three years, including about $700,000 a year from the state that would not come if the levy failed.

Educational levies help pay for educational services ranging from preschool to special education and more that are not funded by the state.