EMS levy given nod in final tally

Spokane voters won’t have to take another run at a special levy for Emergency Medical Services. The final tally from the Elections Office shows the EMS Levy passed with a 392-vote cushion.

The levy was one of several close races that were left hanging on election night because a majority of Spokane’s voters are registered for ballots. It was just 83 votes above the required 60 percent majority, and city officials voted to put it on the November ballot if later counts dropped it below that mark.

But with each count of absentee ballots this week, that became less likely.

Other close races that held up in the final counting were a levy for Spokane County Fire District 4, which passed with nearly 62 percent of the vote, and a levy for the town of Rockford, which received a 62 percent approval.

Under state law, levy proposals require a 60 percent supermajority.

The county’s one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax increase also was approved. It needed a simple majority, and ended up with nearly 52 percent of voters saying yes.

Absentee counts have settled one Eastern Washington legislative race that was too close to call on election night.

Yvette Joseph is the apparent winner over Dennis Kelley for the Democrat nomination for a State House of Representatives seat in the Seventh District. Kelley had tried to withdraw from the race after he filed, but did not make the request until after the deadline passed.

On election night, Kelley had a slight lead. Joseph has a lead of nearly 200 votes with only a few votes to be counted in the five-county district.

In Spokane County’s closest legislative race, State Rep. Brad Benson defeated Sen. Brian Murray for the GOP nomination for the Senate seat in the 6th District.