Couple wants re-vote on LPOSD levy

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County man said he and his wife did not stop to vote in the levy election after reading a misleading sign at Farmin-Stidwell Elementary.

Kevin Yunger said when he and his wife, Rhonda, drove into Farmin-Stidwell’s parking lot about 8:45 a.m., they noticed that the reader board said “Levy election May 20 5-7 p.m.”

The Yungers believe that some people, including those in a car in front of them and a car behind them, also left without voting.

Given the slim margin in which the levy passed, “it raises concerns,” Yunger said. “So I think they should redo that election.”

The levy passed by 42 votes. The election was officially canvassed on May 22. Idaho Code allows for a 40-day window from the canvass day in which the election can be challenged, putting that deadline at June 30.

If it is challenged, trustees are required to hand count the ballots.

It is expected that when an election is as close as this one was that there will be some strong feelings, said Lake Pend Oreille School District Supt. Dick Cvitanich.

“This can be about the issues or the process. I understand that individuals hold strong opinions in our community, which is healthy,” he said.

Lake Pend Oreille School District Supt. Dick Cvitanich said Farmin-Stidwell the sign read “math/science, levy vote, May 20th 5-7,” and that principal Anne Bagby removed the time information about 8:30 a.m.

Yunger disputes that time, saying he recalls looking at the clock in his car before he arrived at the school and that it read 8:45. He said it probably took him another 10 minutes to arrive at school.

He believes the sign was incorrect for an hour to an hour and a half.

“There could have been dozens of people who did not vote,” he said.

After doing some double-checking, the Yungers found out the election hours were in fact from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and returned to the school to vote around 6 p.m., Yunger said.

However, he wonders how many people who work saw the sign and did not have time to return to vote.

LPOSD clerk Julie Menghini said she spoke with Yunger and asked why he did not go inside the school and was told that he thought the hours may have been changed.

Menghini said the school district is legally obligated to hold elections during the time and dates in which they were legally noticed.

Idaho Code requires that elections be advertised in the community’s newspaper of record and be posted in several locations in the community, including at the district office.

Yunger said he did not realize that elections cannot be changed by Idaho Code, but discovered that information later.

However, it does not make the sign any less misleading for people not aware of that law, he said.

Cvitanich said he understands that questioning an election is part of the democratic process, even at the national level.

“The Bush-Gore election return from Florida is a very good example of the passions and process intersecting,” he said.

Cvitanich said 658 people voted at Farmin-Stidwell; 416 in favor and 242, indicating people were aware of the election hours.

Menghini said she also received a telephone call from a man who did not vote at Farmin because the voting booths were not in the same location in which he has voted in the past.

Instead of searching out the voting booths, he left, she said.

Another person also questioned why the absentee ballots counted at Kootenai Elementary were not separated by zone, Menghini said.

Idaho Code requires that absentee ballots be incorporated into those cast at the school closet to the district office, she said.