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Election officials will recount all of the ballots cast for and against a $73 million tax increase to benefit Jeffco Public Schools after a final tally showed the measure passing by just 327 votes.
“Every vote matters, and when an election comes down to a handful of votes, we want voters to have complete confidence in the outcome,” Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez said in a statement Friday announcing the recount.
Under state law, a recount is triggered if the margin between passing and failing is one half of one percent or less. Gonzalez said the recount will start Nov. 24 and be completed by Dec. 4.
There’s a lot at stake for Jeffco Public Schools, which is under financial pressure due to declining enrollment. District leaders have said Jeffco, Colorado’s second largest district with 74,000 students, needs the money to stave off further budget cuts.
The $73 million tax increase, known as Ballot Issue 5A, would fund already-promised and future pay increases for teachers, principals, and school support staff. It would also fund more career and technical education classes for students. A proportional share of the money, about $8.5 million, would go to the district’s charter schools as required by state law.
A companion ballot measure, known as 5B, failed by 7,302 votes, a margin of 51% to 49%. That measure would have raised $60 million for building maintenance projects.
In a joint statement Friday, interim Superintendent Rob Stein and school board President Michelle Applegate said that while the 5A results are still unknown, “we are certainly feeling more optimistic than what we communicated on election night. We recognize how closely you have followed this election and appreciate your patience through a suspenseful waiting period.”
Early vote tallies on Election Day showed that Ballot Issue 5A was failing. That continued to be the case over the next week and a half, though the margin narrowed to as close as three votes as more ballots were counted.
Nov. 12 was the deadline for counting overseas and military ballots, as well as for voters to correct any errors on their ballots, a process known as curing. After those ballots were counted, the margin flipped, with the tally showing that 5A was passing.
The recount will involve rescanning all ballots and interpreting unclear marks, Gonzalez said.
“If a voter made some ambiguous marks that could be crossing out a vote or could be trying to indicate that that was their selection, that goes to a bipartisan team of election workers to interpret,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “When we see vote totals change slightly after a recount, it’s because some ballots have marks that are legitimately difficult to interpret and there isn’t (a) clear answer on how that voter intended to vote.”
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
