Tonasket tax trails by one vote, Hover by five

OKANOGAN – What a difference a week makes, it looks like Supt. Steve Quick got the miracle he was hoping for as Oroville School District’s three-year capital improvement levy is now ahead in the ballot count by 58 votes.

The levy would raise $1.2 million to repair the elementary school’s leaky roof, as well as doing some other small remodeling projects. In the Nov. 6 election night count the measure was failing and that hadn’t changed in the Friday, Nov. 9 tally where there were 17 more votes against. The change came in the third ballot count which took place Wednesday, Nov. 14.

“I guess there were a lot more votes that came in that needed to be counted and that put it ahead,” said a surprised Quick on Wednesday night.

While it looks like the Oroville measure may survive the next count scheduled for Friday, Nov. 16, just a couple of votes could make the difference for Tonasket’s Proposition 1. The Sales and Use Tax levy was way behind in the second count, with those against 53.85 percent. However the third ballot count has the measure down by just one vote. A similar proposition in Okanogan was down by 11 votes.

In another come-from-behind election, incumbent Don “Bud” Hover had gained ground against fellow Republican candidate Ray L. Campbell for Position 2 on the County Board of Commissioners. According to the Wednesday ballot count Hover was just five votes behind the leader.

Countywide there are 875 ballots left to count, according to Mila Jury, an elections official with the Okanogan County Auditor’s office. However, that doesn’t mean there are 875 potential ballots for Oroville School District’s Levy or Tonasket’s Proposition 1, only voters that live within the school district or voters that are residents of the City of Tonasket may be counted for those respective issues.

 A full list of the Wednesday, Nov. 14 county for Okanogan County can be found here: http://vote.wa.gov/results/current/okanogan/.