The election held on Saturday, June 14, 2008 was an atypical election.

First off the reason for holding the election was a tie vote. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve not had a tie vote in the last 60 plus years. There have been close votes and there have been elections where the vote outcome has changed in a recount. There have been some elections which were almost contested and there have been elections where the totals reported on election night did not survive the process of canvassing the election. But never a tie vote.

Secondly the turnout for the election was unusual in the more people voted during early voting than voted on election day. All of our elections since absentee or early voting began have seen an ever increasing number of voters participate in early voting. In the 2006 General Election we had nearly, but not quite, half the voters come in before election day.

To me the third event is the most amazing. More people turned out for a second election (runoff) than came in during the first election. Again that just doesn’t happen. The first elections usually have more contests and candidates as well as media coverage than second elections. Second elections normally have a turnout around 3%. That means only one person out of every thirty-three and a third people in the district This election had a turnout of 20.1%. That translates to one in five and is more than turn out for most school district elections. Last year the bond election only had 15%.

So I believe there are some congratulations and well done's which must be made.

Congratulations to the voters who came in. All elections are important but you made the extra effort to vote in this election. Some of the voters who came by for early voting or came into the polling places on election day couldn’t even vote because they did not live in the district. But they understood the importance and singularity of this election.

Congratulations to the candidates. Up to now we all knew there had to be winners and losers. You both changed that. The tie vote sparked a new idea in everyone’s mind, it is important to vote. And you both worked tirelessly to get the vote out in the second election.

Congratulations to my staff and all the election workers. None of us really knew what to expect during a special election to resolve a tie vote. You can plan and prepare but it really comes down to the participation of voters and being ready to offer a ballot. You did a good job with this very unusual election.