When one vote counts as two

COEUR d'ALENE - No means no, twice.

That's the word from Coeur d'Alene School District officials regarding the results of Tuesday's levy election in which voters were asked to consider two levies equaling $12.9 million on one ballot. Both measures saw successful passage, each capturing more than half of the votes counted.

But school officials stated Wednesday that county election workers handling the election process did not tabulate the no votes on the second ballot option according to the district's intentions.

"Our intent always was if a no vote was cast on Option 1, it would also be no on Option 2," said Superintendent Hazel Bauman.

Voters were instructed on the ballot to refrain from voting on a second levy option of $5 million if they first voted no on a $7.8 million levy option.

The ballot, which was prepared by the school district and passed examination by an elections office attorney and the school district's legal counsel, further stated that the second option could not be approved by voters without successful passage of the first option.

Bauman said she made it clear during the many presentations she gave during the levy campaign that a no vote on the first option would be considered a dissenting vote on the second option.

The county elections office is reporting that the first option passed with 64 percent, and the second option passed at 86 percent.

The school district contends that dissenting votes on the first option should be counted again as no votes on the second option, reducing the percentage of successful passage on the second option to 55 percent.

Kootenai County Clerk Cliff Hayes disagrees.

"We did what the ballot instructed," Hayes told The Press.

School officials met Wednesday morning with Hayes and asked that the no votes on the second option be re-tabulated, but county election officials declined.

Hayes took office as county clerk just days prior to the district's submission of the ballot to his office. Tuesday's levy election was the first school election handled by the county elections office, a state election law change that went into effect on Jan. 1. In previous years, school districts handled their own elections.

Hayes said the school district's ballot (shown above) clearly spelled out for voters and election workers that anyone voting no on the first option should not fill out anything else on the ballot.

"This is their attorney and their board not thinking through the results of this election," Hayes said.

Brad Anderson, a voter from Hayden, said those who wanted to have a say on the second ballot option felt obligated to vote affirmatively on the first option.

"They were almost guaranteeing themselves passage of the first levy," Anderson said.

Other voters told The Press they were advised by election workers that if they voted no on the first option and then voted no on the second option, their ballots would be thrown out.

School district trustees are holding an emergency meeting today at 11:30 a.m. at the Midtown Center meeting room, just off Fourth Street at the corner of Fifth and Linden.

According to a prepared statement released Wednesday by the district's central office, trustees will "publicly honor all votes cast on Tuesday's election and recognize that voters approved both parts of the levy."

"We're going to count every no vote, and hopefully that will resonate with the public, and they will see we are not trying to grab more yes votes than are out there," Bauman said.

Regardless of the way the no votes are counted, both measures passed by the required simple majority vote.