MCPS Bond Passed by City Not Rural Voters

MISSOULA - Last week the Pathfinder reported that election officials were unable to provide results of how local precincts voted on the Missoula County Public Schools’ (MCPS) $70 million high school facilities bond.

The county elections office explained that the election was done by district not by precinct so the local results were not available. Additional data has been provided, based on the style of ballot used. This sheds light on how voters from rural and urban areas voted.

Ballots containing only the high school bond were used by voters in the rural areas of the district while ballots containing Missoula City Council positions in the various wards indicate urban voters.

The other style of ballots, with both the high school bond and the elementary bond, were from voters on the outskirts of Missoula City’s boundaries.

Based on this, 56.61 percent of urban voters voted for the bond while only 37.8 percent of rural voters voted in favor of it. Voters on the outskirts of the city also voted the bond down with only 44.79 percent voting “yes”.

Rural voters had a higher turnout with 59.16 percent of active voters participating while only 52.36 percent of urban active voters returned their ballots. Of the active voters in the outskirts of the city, 58.70 percent participated. Participation percentages follow the same curve when looking at total voters, including active and inactive voters.

Of the 27,989 ballots cast, 14,113 voted for and 13,876 voted against the bond.

The bond passed by less than one percent despite the rural voters having a higher turnout than the urban voters.

 

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