A sign reads "Class of 2020 Making History" as graduates exit the high school after receiving their diplomas last June in Centralia.
After two more rounds of vote counting Wednesday and Thursday, the Centralia School District’s levy request has narrowed the gap between passing and failing votes.
The initial results showed the levy failing with about 52 percent of voters casting “no” votes. However, there were thousands more votes to count.
As of Thursday night, the levy is failing with a narrower 50.37 percent “no” vote — with a margin of difference of 58 votes.
As of Friday morning, Heather Boyer with the Lewis County Elections Office said that there are 2,700 more ballots to be counted but those ballots are from all over the county and will not all be within the Centralia School District. In order for the levy to pass, it must receive at least one vote over 50 percent.
“I will keep hoping that we continue to gain ground and that the next count will be in our favor,” said Centralia School Board President Lori Fast. “I did anticipate that the vote would be close, of course, I was hopeful that it would be in the other direction.”
The updated results of the Friday count will be posted at about 4 p.m. on Friday, after The Chronicle’s print deadline.
The total number of voters includes Lewis County and Thurston County residents who are living within the Centralia School District. As of Friday morning, 130 Thurston County residents and 7,754 Lewis County residents had voted in the levy election.
Since the first count of levy election votes, released on Tuesday evening, another 2,222 citizens who voted in the primary had been counted in Lewis County.
Fast said that regardless of the final outcome, it is encouraging to see that the district has been able to turn what was a 30 percent "yes" vote in February into almost 50 percent “yes” vote.
“A turnaround of 20 percent is pretty incredible, given what we have been facing in the past few months. It shows that there are a large number of people who were hesitant before but now understand how important that funding is for our students,” she said.“At the end of the day, our focus will remain on the children who attend Centralia Schools and providing the very best education we can with the resources we have.”
The Lewis County Auditor’s Office said that they do not conduct recounts for resolutions no matter how close the vote.
