PORT ANGELES –– More than 60 percent of ballots in Sequim School District’s $154 million bond election had not been returned to auditors’ offices as of Thursday for Tuesday’s election.
Clallam County voters in the school district returned 8,596 of the 21,578 ballots issued, or 39.8 percent.
Jefferson County voters in the district returned 115 of 273 ballots, 42.1 percent.
Combined, two counties have received 8,711 ballots, or 39.9 percent of the ballots mailed to voters.
Sequim’s bond measure requires a 60 percent majority for passage.
Just over 21 percent of ballots had been returned Thursday for Cape Flattery School District’s four-year $375,000 maintenance-and-operations levy.
The Clallam County Auditor’s Office had received 241 ballots from the 1,140 voters in the district.
The levy request, a $25,000 increase from the 2012-14 levy of $350,000 that expires in December, requires a simple majority to pass.
It would be used to pay for services not entirely covered by state and federal funding, such as school nurse services, building maintenance, technology purchases and updates, school bus transportation, library staff and resources, textbooks and supplies, student counseling services and the food program, district officials said.
Sequim bond request
District officials are asking voters to permit them to issue $154,325,000 in general obligation bonds that will mature within a maximum term of 20 years and levy annual excess property taxes to repay the bonds.
The bonds would be funded by Sequim School District taxpayers, those living between McDonald Creek on the west and Diamond Point Road and Gardiner on the east, at an estimated $2.24 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
Ballots were mailed to voters April 2 and will be counted shortly after 8 p.m. election night Tuesday.
Ballots must be deposited in a county drop box by 8 p.m. or postmarked on or before Tuesday.
Results are expected to be officially certified May 6.
