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Initial special election counts leave doubt for 2 propositions in Whatcom County

WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. — Yesterday, February 8th, a Special Election was held via mail-in ballots regarding approval or rejection of property taxes for 2 school districts and a proposed library. Initial counts fell short for the 2 propositions that require a 60% super-majority for approval.

The following are the initial results after 34,841 ballots had been counted by 8:12pm yesterday.

Bellingham School District 501 Proposition 2022-3 General Obligation Bonds – $122,000,000 (requires 60% super-majority)

VoteVote %
Approved13,67659.29%
Rejected9,39140.71%
Total Votes23,067

Ferndale School District 502 Proposition 2022-1 School Programs and Operations Replacement Levy

VoteVote %
Yes5,24159.29%
No3,59840.71%
Total Votes8,839

Whatcom County Rural Library District Proposition 2022-2 Establishing the Birch Bay Library Capital Facility Area (requires 60% super-majority)

VoteVote %
Yes1,73056.74%
No1,31943.26%
Total Votes3,049

Officials with the Ferndale School District issued a statement about 8:30pm yesterday declaring their levy proposition had been approved.

Bellingham Public Schools officials issued a statement acknowledging the initial count fell short of the required 60% approval need but remained optimistic. “We find that the later ballots tend to favor school measures at a higher rate.”

The next ballot count is expected today about 5pm.

One Comment

  1. Jess Robinson February 9, 2022

    According to my calculations (and based on the report of approximately 1,500 votes outstanding): 1,064 of the remaining 1,500 votes need to go to “approve” for the BSD bond measure to pass. It’s a close one!

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