Special election update: More votes roll in for school levies across Pierce County
More votes were counted and released Wednesday afternoon in the Feb. 8, 2022, special election, made up primarily of school replacement levies across Pierce County.
The biggest change was to one Puyallup School District levy, which was passing at 50.14 percent as of Wednesday’s results. School levies require a simple majority to pass, or 50 percent of voters plus one.
Voters appeared to be passing a majority of school levies as of Wednesday’s results.
Voters appeared to be failing both school levies in the Bethel School District. Reached by phone Wednesday, Bethel Superintendent Tom Seigel said that if the levies do not pass, it’s likely they will run another one in the April special election. Without the levy, the district would be missing out on about $50 million, meaning there will need to be cuts to staff and programs.
“I certainly hope it (passes) the second time because the affect on kids would be pretty dramatic,” Seigel said.
Dieringer School District was also failing one levy, by .05 percent as of Wednesday’s results. Two other Dieringer levies were passing.
Another round of results will drop around 4:30 p.m. Thursday by the Pierce County Auditor’s Office, which will include approximately 1,000 more ballots.
After Thursday, the election will be pretty much wrapped up with the majority of ballots on hand processed and counted, according to the Pierce County Auditor’s Office.
“We continue to receive ballots from our military and overseas voters, plus any ballots with an on-time postmark will be valid,” said elections manager Michael Rooney. “Voters with signature discrepancies and voters who forgot to sign the ballot have an opportunity to resolve their ballot through Feb. 17.”
Levies currently passing:
Tacoma Public Schools
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 66.61 percent yes votes
- Prop. 2 funding technology improvements: 66.94 percent yes votes
Puyallup School District
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 50.14 percent yes votes
University Place School District
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 66.74 percent yes votes
- Prop. 2 funding safety, technology and capital improvements: 67.96 percent yes votes
Steilacoom School District
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 62.84 percent yes votes
Dieringer School District
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 54.51 percent yes votes
- Prop. 2 funding instructional technology improvements: 53.37 percent yes votes
Orting School District
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 54.79 percent yes votes
Franklin Pierce School District
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 52.28 percent yes votes
- Prop. 2 funding instructional technology improvements: 54.95 percent yes votes
White River School District
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 51.32 percent yes votes
- Prop. 2 funding capital projects: 51.69 percent yes votes
Fife School District
- Prop. 1 funding programs and operations: 58.12 percent yes votes
- Prop. 2 funding technology capital projects: 59.83 percent yes votes
Levies currently failing:
Bethel School District
- Prop. 1 funding operations and programs: 56.24 percent no votes
- Prop. 2 funding technology improvements: 53.36 percent no votes
Puyallup School District
- Prop. 2 funding safety, security, infrastructure and technology improvements: 51.64 percent no votes
Dieringer School District
- Prop. 3 funding health, safety, security and infrastructure improvements: 50.05 percent no votes
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 12:09 PM.
