Politics & Government

West Pierce Fire Levy Passes--By 40 Votes

The West Pierce Fire & Rescue two-year, $22 million fire levy election reached the certification threshold by a slim 40 votes on Thursday, preliminary returns show.

Voters in University Place and Lakewood have approved the renewal of West Pierce Fire and Rescue’s excess levy to help pay operation and maintenance costs, by a slim margin.

The levy showed strong support in the Tuesday Election night returns but didn't have enough support to be certified until Thursday afternoon.

To validate, the measure needed 9,356 “yes” votes. According to the Pierce County Auditor’s Office, 3,396 "yes" ballots were returned in the latest tally Thursday afternoon--40 votes over the minimum threshold. State law requires a 60 percent "supermajority" and certain number of votes to validate.

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According to county data, 27.92 percent of registered voters in the district participated in the August Primary election.

As of Thursday's tally, the measure was passing with 68 percent of the vote. 

Find out what's happening in University Placewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

District officials have said they will rerun the measure this November if it didn't validate during the Primary.


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