By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch Graham Fire and Rescue's levy is headed for approval after rising from the ashes of an initial defeat. Ballots from the general election that were counted last week gave the levy a 60.4 percent approval, virtually assuring it of passing. A majority of at least 60 percent is required for tax measures to pass. When the levy was submitted in the primary election in August, voters rejected it, giving it a 58 percent yes vote. The fire district's commissioners ran it a second time in the general election, which ended Nov. 4. By the end of the day last Friday, Pierce County election workers had finished counting all but 715 of the ballots that were returned by the fire district's voters. Updated results scheduled to be announced Nov. 18 weren't expected to alter the trend favoring the levy. The final results will be certified Nov. 25. The maintenance and operations levy is for $11 to be collected over four years, beginning in 2015, at a rate of 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Approximately $2.7 million in collections per year will allow the district to hire more personnel and reverse cuts in service, including full or partial closures of two fire stations that were made after the levy failed on its first attempt. No other outcomes of races in south Pierce County have changed since early results of the general election. The town of Eatonville's public safety levy was defeated, and state Reps. J.T. Wilcox and Graham Hunt, U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert and Jeanette Lineberry, a candidate for Pierce County District Court judge, were elected. It's expected that by the time all ballots countywide are counted, a little more than half of the registered voters in the county will have participated in the election. "Our projection for voter turnout (of 51 to 52 percent) hasn't changed," said Auditor Julie Anderson, who oversees county elections. The elections department reported that about 30,000 ballots were received Nov. 4, a 'historic number" for an actual election day. "Not many people voted, but the ones that did waited until the last possible moment," Anderson said.
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