Referendum fails

By GUY PRIEL

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Officials with District 88 will be faced with few options and many questions following the failure Tuesday night of an excess levy referendum.

Preliminary estimates indicate the proposal lost by a margin of approximately 3,700 to 2,100.

Election judges decided to recount the votes at midnight.

The goal of the referendum was to help provide an additional $450 per pupil unit for the next five years, beginning with taxes paid in May 2001, which would be approximately $6 million.

The district approved cuts totalling over $500,000 for the 2000-2001 school year, which Superintendent Harold Remme said is not enough to balance the budget. The district will now face up to $1 million worth of cuts for the 2001-2002 school year.

The need for a referendum was a combined result of declining enrollment, which is expected to decrease by as much as 399 over the next five years, and a decreasing fund balance. The district goal is to have $1.5 million available in the fund balance, to cover emergency expenses.

Out of the 11,300 registered voters in District 88, which includes parts of Brown, Nicollet and Blue Earth counties, approximately 5,900, or 52 percent voted. Approximately 50 people, mostly young adults, registered to vote at Vogel Arena Tuesday, according to election judges.

Of the total voters, 491 showed up in person at Vogel Arena, with 316 voting no and 175 voting yes. Other ballots were received either via mail or in the lock box at the superintendent's office.

The process of sorting and verifying mail ballots began Monday, when election judges sorted the ballots, checked for signatures, and checked off names. The names are checked to prevent anyone from voting more than once.

Once verified, the envelopes containing the ballots were placed in a locked box, which was then opened Tuesday night by at least two judges.

Mail ballots are a different matter to deal with, because of the privacy issue involved in the voting process, and the need to verify elections, one of the judges said.

Mail ballots tend to have higher results than a typical election, because it is easier and more convenient to people who have trouble getting to polling places to vote, according to information released from the Secretary of State's office.

"We tried to get as much information out to the voters as possible," Remme said during an earlier interview. "We hoped to learn a lesson from other districts, such as GFW."

GFW Schools held an election last November that failed, forcing an additional $500,000 worth of cuts., but many of the residents complained that they didn't have enough information, or didn't realize what would happen.