School financing votes promoted

School financing votes promoted

By Rachel Tuinstra
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

The Nov. 8 election was scarcely over when Lesley Austin and a legion of volunteers for the Issaquah School District began rallying would-be voters for the Feb. 7 election.

Volunteers immediately hit the phones, with much of their effort focused on those who vote by absentee ballot.

With more than $1.5 billion in levies and bonds at stake for the seven school districts on the Eastside, there's a lot of incentive to come up with a winning plan. The citizens committees that generally run such campaigns know that the earlier they get information out, the better the chances for a ballot measure to succeed.

Like many other districts, Issaquah is starting to campaign now, in part because more people are voting by mail.

Some school-district volunteers say more mail voting seems to have made it harder to pass measures that need 60 percent approval — a trend other counties also have seen.

With the percentage of absentee ballots rising steadily — more than 62 percent of King County ballots in the Nov. 8 general election were cast by mail — districts around the region are adopting earlier strategies to get levies passed.

"In the early or mid-1990s, you geared all of your activity to election day, and you didn't worry about absentee voters," said Austin, who sits on the steering committee for Volunteers for Issaquah Schools. "Now, we generally send out a big [mailer] in January, the day the absentee ballots go out. Then we send another [mailer] to poll voters right before election day."

Thurston County was one of the first in the state to use vote-by-mail elections widely — and one of the first to see how that affected school districts' levy and bond measures.

In 1994, shortly after the county began using vote-by-mail, five of the county's school districts saw levy measures fail, and one school district saw two of its bonds fail. It was what Kim Wyman, Thurston County auditor, termed "the year of unintentional consequences."

"I will never forget sitting in a meeting with school superintendents who accused us of being the reason why the levies failed," Wyman said.

This year, Wyman has been giving workshops for school districts in other counties, including King County. Her message: The more people vote by mail, the more approval margins may narrow.

"School districts are going to have to retool their campaigns to be successful," she said. "You can't work to peak your campaign for one day, you have to be ready to go 20 days before the election, because that's when a lot of voters are going to have their ballot in hand."

King County districts have not used vote-by-mail elections as widely as those in Thurston County, but the increase in absentee ballots is substantial. In 1993, about 100,000 absentee ballots were mailed to registered voters in the county. This year, more than 600,000 absentee ballots were mailed out.

In many Eastside precincts, absentees make up at least 60 percent of the ballots cast. In the early 1990s, absentees made up less than a third of voters, say district volunteers.

The trend has shortened the campaign season because absentee ballots are sent out about three weeks before the election. Wait too long to send out informational mailers or campaign fliers and you'll miss a large portion of the voters, say volunteers who help campaign for school levies.

Seattle Public Schools, the largest school district in the state, also has seen the trend to absentee ballots. Schools First, the campaign organization that promotes the district's levy measures, usually tailors its mailers to absentee voters and poll voters, said Peter Daniels, spokesman for the district. The district doesn't have a levy on the February ballot; voters approved a $178 million capital levy last year .

Because school districts are banned from campaigning for a levy — they can send out informational mailers but can't tell voters to approve it — the campaigning falls to citizens groups like Schools First.

"It's the citizen campaign committees that have to tackle the absentee-ballot issue," Daniels said. "Our timeline is the same as other school districts, only we need to reach more people."

Approach in Northshore

In the Northshore School District, citizens groups will cross-reference lists of registered voters with parents who live in the school district to make sure they're contacted.

The group also will look at who voted in the district's last levy election, and remind them to vote Feb. 7. Those registered to vote by absentee ballot will get a call about the time ballots are mailed out. Those registered to vote at the polls will get calls closer to the elections.

"It's very intensive and hard on volunteers," said Jamie Criddle, a volunteer with Citizens for Northshore Schools. "We're also sending out people to talk at PTA functions to get parents prepared, talking to Bothell, Kenmore and Woodinville city councils so they'll support it," Criddle said.

When she began campaigning for school levies and bonds 13 years ago, it was a simple operation. Half the battle was getting enough people to the polls to make sure the election was validated, she said. To make a levy election valid, turnout has to equal or exceed 40 percent of the turnout in the most recent general election.

The more people who vote absentee, the easier it is to reach that 40 percent because turnout tends to be higher. But there is a downside, she said.

"The higher the absentee ballots, the easier it is for 'no' voters to vote, and you have to work harder to get your 60 percent supermajority," Criddle said. To pass, most levies and bonds are required to get at least 60 percent voter approval.

While not all districts agree that the increase in absentee ballots makes it easier for "no" voters to vote, other counties have seen an increase in the impact mailed-in ballots have on levy elections.

Staying in touch

Some districts are putting more emphasis on staying in touch with parents and potential voters through the year.

For instance, the Bellevue School District sends newsletters throughout the school year to about 3,000 people who aren't affiliated with the district, mostly senior citizens, said Judy Bushnell, president of the School Board. It also sends regular e-mails to about 3,500 people.

"We are asking people to trust that their money will be well spent," Bushnell said. "There will always be 25 percent who don't want more taxes, and 30 percent who will vote in favor because they think public education is important. So it's the remaining people that you have to show that what you are doing is worthy of their trust."

Rachel Tuinstra: 206-515-5637

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