Yesterday the people voted to decide whether their school districts deserved taxpayer money. In Kootenai County we saw the highest voter turnout for a school levy ever.
For reference, the March 2021 levy posed similar questions to the school districts and that turnout was 18,249.
Coeur d’Alene was the big shocker of the night where at first glance it looks like both levies failed. The School Plant Facilities levy results are too close to call so the *assumption* is that the Election’s office will count them again.
For clarification, the supplemental levy, the levy that the school district asks for every two years to supplement their budget, needs to pass with 50% + 1 majority vote.
The School Plant Facilities Levy, the secondary levy that the school district can ask for when they specifically need money for deferred maintenance that they have put off for years, needs to pass with a 55% majority.
The Coeur d’Alene School Plant Facilities Levy failed by only a few votes (roughly 92 votes); because the Election’s office cares about the integrity of the elections, I assume they will be counting those ballots again today to confirm.
In the meantime, below are screenshots for all the races in Kootenai County; to view them online click here to see them on the Secretary of State’s website. To download the unofficial results in PDF form put together by our local Election’s office, click here.
All results are unofficial until they are cured by the county commissioners within 7 days. They will have a meeting on the calendar so look to Monday’s weekly meeting post to see when that will happen.
Below you will find the results for Lakeland and Kootenai School Districts. Because those school districts reach multiple counties, the results are split up between county and have to be added together to get final results.
Who paid for all the advertising? Billboards, Facebook and YouTube advertising, even advertising with online games, signage, and picket signs. That money was certainly easy to find all of the sudden.