Voter apathy doomed Pasco school levy and imperils democracy | Editorial

Fifty-nine votes were the difference that cost Pasco school children the full education they deserve. Don’t blame the voters, though. At least they turned up.

Rather, blame the people, including many Pasco School District employees, who could not be bothered to return their ballots.

Once the counting was complete in the Feb. 10 election, the district’s Educational Programs and Operations levy had failed by less than 1% of the 10,907 votes cast.

The measure would have renewed an expiring levy at the current funding amount. It was not a cash grab but a request to keep things going as is, raising $35 million in the first year plus $14 million in state matching support.

Those dollars pay for staffing, athletics, school safety and daily operations at 30 schools serving more than 18,300 students.

Now, for want of 60 votes, the district might have to cut extracurriculars, teams, equipment, school resource officers and more.

The election results were bad enough. Then came a gut punch.

Valerie Moffitt, a lifelong Pasco resident and school advocate, shared at a post-election school board meeting that 61 of Pasco’s coaches did not cast a ballot. Had they all voted yes, the levy would have squeaked through.

In fact, nearly two-thirds of Pasco School District staff who live in the district did not vote. The people whose stipends, salaries and work environments depended on the levy did not participate.

Such apathy is both disappointing and indefensible. Washington makes voting incredibly easy. There are no polling lines, no scheduling conflicts, no scramble for a ride to a precinct.

Every voter receives a ballot by mail and can return it the same way. A straightforward special election ballot like this one takes just a few seconds to complete and put back in the mail.

If teachers cared half as much about children’s education as they claim every time their union goes on strike, they could have more than covered the 59-vote gap. In 2015, Pasco’s teachers walked picket lines for two weeks, defied a court order and faced daily fines to fight for better working conditions.

Returning a mail-in ballot would have required a fraction of that effort.

School employees were not alone in their indifference. Countywide, less than one-quarter of all registered voters returned their ballots, the most recent dismal voter turnout in a long string of them.

Low turnout has plagued elections for decades. Franklin County voter participation data chronicle repeated civic negligence interrupted only by presidential politics. Primaries and special elections – like the Feb. 10 election – routinely draw one-third of voters or less.

Franklin County residents show up for the hot air and harmful rhetoric of a presidential race. They will come out to vote for Donald Trump, who carried the county three times, but not so much for a levy renewal that would keep coaches employed, athletes equipped and playing, resource officers assisting students and music programs enriching young lives.

Such electoral apathy undermines American civic life, and the Pasco School District and Franklin County are not outliers. Thousands of other communities nationwide have the same problem. Blowhard personalities energize voters more than the things that directly affect a community such as schools, roads and public safety.

Voting is the best way to change course or to affirm incumbent leaders’ actions. Democracy falters when people abdicate their right to vote and cede power to the minority that remains engaged.

The Pasco School Board will ask voters to pass a levy again on April 28. The new levy will show a lower property tax rate thanks to increasing assessments but will raise the same amount of money.

Taxpayers, parents and especially school district employees must show up and close the 59-vote gap. They do not have to leave their homes. Just complete a ballot at the kitchen table and send it in. Students are counting on them.