February 3 Levy Election in Final Week

January 28, 2004 - The district’s Education Maintenance & Operations Replacement Levy election is moving into its final week. The measure represents about 24 percent of the district’s annual operating budget and replaces our current local levy funding for the next four years.

Absentee ballots (for voters who vote by mail instead of at the polls on Election Day) continue to be received by the King County Elections office. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, February 3, or can be dropped off at any polling place. Most of our schools are designated polling places. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

School district elections must meet two critical objectives for success: validation of the election and obtaining 60 percent of the positive votes. To validate, at least 40 percent of all voters who voted in the last general election must also vote in our election. For Renton, that means a minimum of 7,246 voters must vote. More than 7,180 ballots have been returned for our measure. We should reach the validation goal by with today’s count. The second objective is acquiring a 60 percent “supermajority.” Which means a minimum of 60 percent of all votes cast must be in favor of the measure.

King County Elections will begin opening (and tallying) ballots on Election Day. Results of the count will begin at 8 p.m. and will be posted on the department’s Web site at http://www.metrokc.gov/elections. Updated results are scheduled at 9, 10 and 11 p.m. Local television stations will also show results, likely during late evening newscasts.