Voting underway on local issues

Staff members in the county elections office had received approximately 2,050 ballots for the Nov. 5 election as of Monday. They had about 1,600 processed as of Friday and another 450 arrived in the mail Monday.

The return is just more than eight percent of the 25,220 ballots which were mailed out for the general election Oct. 18.

Under state election changes, voters who have moved or new voters can register up until the election ends Tuesday.

A sample ballot of all the measures up for a decision covers a full two broadsheets of paper. Other than the state measures, none of the other ballot verdicts will be required from all voters in the county.

Lone county proposal on the ballot is a request to raise the levy lid for rural road maintenance from $1.4525 per $1,000 of assessed valuation to $2.25 per $1,000. The proposal evolves from funding binds related to the state’s annual one percent limit on tax revenue increases per year.

The road levy measure is on ballots of voters who live outside of incorporated towns and cities in the county where the road levy is applied.

A headliner for the election is the Pullman Hospital district’s second round request for a levy to finance a $29 million bond issue for hospital improvements and an addition. The proposal failed last April because not enough voters turned out to validate the election. The validation number is set according to the turnout for the prior general election.

The Pullman count in April showed those who voted approved the request at a rate over the 60 percent super majority required.

Voters in cities and towns will decide races for contested seats.

Endicott, the lone town to appear on the August primary ballot with three candidates filing, will decide a contested race for mayor and three city council positions.

Colfax, Garfield and Uniontown each have three contested council races on the ballot.

Pullman, Tekoa and Palouse each have two contested races, and Malden and Rosalia each have one council contest.

Only one contested race is listed among the eight fire districts on the ballot with Roger McKiernan and James Brickey running for seat one in Pullman District 12.

The election ballot lists just four contested races among the 13 county school districts on the ballot. Tekoa has two school director contests with Pullman and Palouse each listed for one.

One unique catchup levy proposal was placed on the ballot by directors in the Lamont School District.

Lamont last February was the lone district in the county to stick with the $1.50 per $1,000 limit then set by the state for maintenance and operation under McCleary funding. Other districts asked for more in anticipation of revisions expected in the legislative session. Lamont voters approved the $1.50 request, but the school directors have asked voters to okay another $1.00 per $1,000 over the next two years to bring local funding in line with the subsequent increase in the state limit.

Auditor Sandy Jamison urges voters to mail ballots back as soon as possible to allow time for early processing. First election returns Tuesday derive from early ballots, which have been processed by the elections staff and are ready to send through the counting machine after the polls close on election night.

Ballots returned on election day require processing and are added to subsequent election tallies.

Deadline for mailing ballots is on election day, Nov. 5, post mark, and deadline for returning them to ballot boxes is the official 8 p.m. closing time at the polls.