Razor-thin margins on two local school district levies remained after Friday’s updated tally.
The Winlock School District’s levy, which was trailing by just 2 votes as of Wednesday’s tally, is now leading by 5 votes.
The updated tally on Friday left Mossyrock School District’s levy just 3 votes shy of passage. Wednesday’s tally showed the measure falling 13 votes short of passage.
Levies need 50 percent plus one vote to pass.
The Winlock School District Educational Programs and Operations Replacement Levy is currently passing with 674 voters, 50.19%, supporting the measure and 669, 49.81%, opposing it.
Initial election night counts showed Winlock’s measure trailing with 611 voters opposing the measure and 584 supporting it.
If passed, the proposal would replace the expiring three-year levy with a new two-year levy that would allow the district to collect up to $1,480,000 in property taxes in 2026 and up to $1,682,000 in 2027. The estimated levy rate would be $1.12 per $1,000 of assessed value for both years.
A previous levy proposal asking the voters to approve a higher estimated levy rate of $1.27 per $1,000 of assessed value for three years failed on the February ballot with 570 votes (47.54%) in favor and 629 (52.46%) opposed.
Under Washington state law, school districts can only run levy proposals on the ballot twice per calendar year.
If Winlock’s levy does fail on this ballot, the district will not be able to pass a replacement levy before the current levy expires at the end of the year.
The Mossyrock School District Replacement Educational Programs and Operations Levy is currently leaning toward failing with 667 votes, 50.08%, opposing it and 665 votes, 49.92%, in favor.
The updated count narrowed the 13-vote margin shown in Wednesday’s tally, which showed 667 voters, 50.45%, opposing the measure and 655 voters, 49.55%, in favor of it.
Initial election night results showed 609 voters opposing the measure and 586 supporting it.
The district will ask for a recount if the final counts still show the measure failing by a narrow margin, according to Superintendent Mark Chandler.
This election marks the Mossyrock School District’s first attempt to pass a levy proposal this year.
The updated tally released Friday counted one more opposing ballot for the Onalaska School District Educational Programs and Operation Replacement Levy, which is now leaning toward failure with 979 voters, 55.31%, opposing the measure and 791, 44.71%, supporting it.
Wednesday’s count showed 978 voters, 55.29%, opposing the measure and 791, 44.71%, supporting it.
Initial election night results showed the measure trailing with 895 voters opposing the measure and 703 supporting it.
This is the Onalaska School District’s second attempt to pass a replacement levy this year, with a proposal on the Feb. 11 special election ballot failing with 715 (47.92%) votes in favor and 777 (52.08%) votes opposed.
The district did not make any amendments to its proposal between elections, asking voters to replace the expiring levy with a new three-year levy that would allow the district to collect up to $1,891,440 in property taxes in 2026, $1,948,184 in 2027 and $2,006,629 in 2028. The estimated levy rate would be $1.25 per $1,000 of assessed value for all three years.
The final measure on Lewis County ballots, a Lewis County Fire Protection District No. 4 bond to construct a new fire station, got slightly closer to passing with Friday’s tally, but it has still not reached the 60 percent of the vote it needs to pass.
Friday’s tally counted 265 ballots, 57.36%, in favor and 197, 42.64%, opposed.
Initial election night results showed the measure had 56.91 percent, or 247 ballots, in favor and 187 voters opposed. The count released Wednesday brought the approval percentage to 57.26%, or 265 ballots, with 197 voters opposed.
There were a total of 13,264 eligible voters across all the local ballot measures and there were 4,911 ballots counted as of Wednesday for a turnout of 37.02%.
The next ballot count will be released at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 1.
Learn more about the special election and the Lewis County Auditor’s Office at https://elections.lewiscountywa.gov/current-election.
