With thousands of ballots left to count, initial results from Tuesday night’s primary election show Spokane County voters approving all four tax measures on their ballot.
According to Spokane County Elections, only 19.1% of the more than 350,000 registered voters in the area turned in their August ballot, the lowest rate in over a decade. There are about 6,000 left to count before the county certifies the results, but it won’t make much of a difference here.
Each tax proposal that the county, Spokane Valley and two fire protection districts ran appeared to pass based on Tuesday night’s results. Only residents in those jurisdictions can vote on these taxes and fees, and the 6,000 ballots left to count represent the remaining total countywide.
Aquifer Protection Area
The proposal that could affect the most pocketbooks is Spokane County’s bid to renew its Aquifer Protection Area, or APA. County officials and those from the cities of Spokane, Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and the town of Millwood all agreed to put it on the ballot for another 20-year term.
The Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer is the region’s primary source of drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents. The Legislature allowed the county to establish an APA in 1985, which voters renewed in 2004. Tuesday’s results show it passing again by a wide margin.
