No Challenge For Bond Vote Group Decides Against Asking For Recount Of School Election

The Kootenai County Property Owners Association will not ask for a recount of last week’s narrow Post Falls school bond election victory.

The $17.97 million bond to build a new high school passed the 66-2/3 percent supermajority requirement by one vote last Tuesday - 5,487 residents favored the bond, while 3,658 opposed it.

“We’re not going to ask for a recount,” association president Dee Lawless said. “It would be futile. They got so close to 66-2/3, we have to accept it.”

The property owners association has long opposed bond elections. On Tuesday, the group dispatched its members to watch the polling places for ballot stuffing. It also distributed fliers stating the association’s opposition to the bond in the days before the vote.

But Lawless said the group will continue to press for a change in the election laws that would make the county clerk, not school districts, responsible for counting ballots.

“To have a school district or any taxing entity control its own election process can cause a loss of confidence on the part of the public,” she said. “There is too much room for error in this system.”

Post Falls Superintendent Dick Harris said he’s glad the property owners group has decided not to demand a recount.

“There’s so much work to do, we can’t miss a beat,” Harris said. “I’m pleased that’s the direction they decided to go.”

District officials expect to present their “educational specifications” to the school board within the next two months. The specifications will be used by architects to help draw up blueprints for the new high school, which is slated for completion in fall 2000.

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