Pasco school levy still trailing. Are there enough ballots left to save it?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pasco levy trails by 85 votes, 5,306 to 5,221, pending more counts.
- Counting delayed until at least 500 ballots meet the state-law threshold.
- Levy provides about 10% of the district's operating budget; outcome critical.
CORRECTION: The initial version of this story gave the wrong ballot count in the lastest tally. As of Friday, the Pasco school levy was failing 5,368 to 5,278.
Pasco School District officials and supporters remain in painful suspense Friday evening as they wait for more ballots to be counted in Franklin County.
The district’s $153 million operations levy to pay for critical services over the next four years was trailing at last count.
The levy was down by just 90 votes after county election officials posted the latest tally Friday afternoon. It’s been trailing by fewer than 100 votes since election night.
Another tally is expected to be uploaded Tuesday.
The Franklin County auditor’s office estimates that fewer than 500 ballots remain and initially held off on updating Thursday.
With the arrival of ballots from drop boxes from outlying areas and postmarked ballots still arriving in the mail, they made a small update Friday with another set for Tuesday.
State law sets a count threshold of 500 threshold ballots to prevent an attempt to track how a particular voter voted. In theory, someone could try to match whose ballot had arrived with the outcome of the election.
However, County Auditor Matt Beaton has the legal authority to allow fewer to be counted. Beaton was not immediately available Friday morning to ask about that issue.
About 120 of the 128 ballots counted Friday were for the Pasco schools measure.
As of Friday, the Pasco school levy was failing 5,368 to 5,278. That’s 50.4% to 49.6%. With an estimated 300 ballots left to count, it is statistically unlikely the district will get the votes needed to make up the difference.
No other measures in Franklin County were so close that the next round of counts could swing the outcome in either direction.
The district with 18,300 students says the levy makes up about 10% of its operating budgeting.
The same delay with ballot counting happened in November when at least four Franklin County races and a levy measure still hanging in the balance, while the auditor’s office waited until the week of Thanksgiving to count hundreds of its remaining ballots.
At that time they have 437 ballots left to count from across the county, not including some 200 challenged ballots.
This story was originally published February 13, 2026 at 12:08 PM.
