The College of Western Idaho board of trustees voted unanimously Monday to request a recount of last week's election results for a proposed levy that would have been used to build a health sciences building on campus.
CWI had a levy on the ballot in Ada and Canyon Counties that would have used property taxes towards a $49 million health science building. It failed by just 144 votes.
"We did get input from various members of the community and our fellow trustees that looked at it and said, 'We really should take a look at this.' It’s just too close to just not take advantage of taking a second look," says Mark Browning, Vice President of Communications and Government Relations at CWI.
He says this is the second time the school has been on the ballot. The first time was in 2016, when the school requested a more comprehensive package that would have been used to address various campus needs.
Because that package didn’t pass, Browning says they focused this year’s levy on just the healthcare building. He says healthcare professions are a growing demand and the school doesn’t have enough facilities to keep up.
"As our population ages and the need and demand for trained healthcare professionals increases nearly exponentially every year, we are just not meeting that demand," Browning says.
Phil McGrane is the Chief Deputy Ada County Clerk. He says the vote is within the margin that qualifies for a recount, so the CWI chairman can request it next week. If requested, 5 percent of randomly selected ballots will be recounted by hand and machine to compare accuracy. McGrane says that nearly 10,000 ballots in Ada County alone will have to be counted by hand.
"It’s daunting, but with any recount, there’s a lot of eyes on the process to make sure everything is accurate in the election results," McGrane says.
He says the process of a recount can take several weeks to complete.
For more local news, follow the KBSX newsroom on Twitter @KBSX915
Copyright 2018 Boise State Public Radio