WASHINGTON — Washington County supervisors reviewed votes on a $15 million Highland schools bond issue Wednesday afternoon, despite earlier reports that the election would be rerun after a polling station gave some voters the wrong ballots on election day.

County Attorney Nathan Repp said some precinct voters received ballots that included the bond issue even though they did not live in the school district, while other voters who were eligible to vote on the bond issue may have received ballots of voting without question. However, he said the county has no authority to unilaterally declare election results invalid and should go ahead with canvassing.

However, the 61 percent vote in favor of the bond issue may not be set in stone. Repp said voters could challenge the election result in court, a move that will require about 22 petition signatures, all from eligible voters in the school district.

“If the question is whether to review the election further, the answer to that is ‘Yes,'” Repp said. “It is considered valid unless it is invalidated at some point by the District Court … it could be challenged by petition.”

If a court finds the result invalid, Repp said the bond could face another special election, as it has been previously reported in the Gazette. Otherwise, it is set to have normal effect.

The plan to move forward with the canvass reversed earlier statements by county election officials, who said Nov. 6 that they expected the issue to come back to voters at a later date.

County Auditor Dan Widmer said Wednesday he appreciated the guidance from the county attorney after fielding calls from news outlets around the country about the confusion.

“There’s misinformation going around,” he told county supervisors at a Nov. 13 meeting, hours before canvassing began. “We wanted to tell you gentlemen in case you are approached.”

The deadline for eligible voters to file an appeal is quite short. Repp said state code sets a deadline of just three days after election results are reviewed to challenge the result, but he’s not sure if that came after the first canvassing round — Nov. 13 in Washington County — or the second round , which is scheduled for November 19.

With the bond issue passing by just a 1 percent margin, county officials said they weren’t sure if the errors at the Ainsworth precinct made a difference in the outcome of the election, and they couldn’t verify how many voters received the wrong ballots.

“A ballot, once figuratively placed in the ballot box, loses all identity,” Repp said. “There is no way to determine how many people voted for the bond measure that were ineligible or how many people did not have the opportunity to vote for the bond measure that was eligible.”

Repp said Highland’s bond issue issue will not affect the results of any of the other races because the incorrect ballots were identical except for the bond question.

If the results of the bond issue hold, the district will issue $15 million in debt to help pay for a new multipurpose facility, secure elementary building entrances and upgrade the high school commons. The money would also fund the construction of new classrooms and locker rooms. It would take about 20 years to pay off, according to district officials, but would not raise taxes beyond the $2.70 debt service fee needed to pay off the district’s last bond, a $3.7 million debt approved in 2019 .

Highland Superintendent Ken Crawford said little about the election mix-up after the county supervisors’ meeting Wednesday morning, but said he was anxious to hear if the schools could act on the projects, either way.

“We look forward to the process moving forward and hopefully for the better,” he said.

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