Ballot design banishes Bethel school levy to the back.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

Where's the Bethel school levy?

Paula Praus-Williamson asked herself that question Saturday when she opened her ballot for the May 16 election - and she's hardly an uninformed voter. She's a former Bethel School Board member who's been campaigning for the tax measure.

But she couldn't find it in her first-blush glance. Then she noticed a message on the bottom of the ballot: "Vote Both Sides." She flipped it over and there was Measure 20-109, alone on the back side.

"I was just squawking to everyone, 'This is unfair,' ' said Praus-Williamson, whose children are home-schooled but have participated in Bethel music programs. "It's hard enough getting 50 percent of the vote, and it's like, where is this thing?"

Bethel district spokesman Pat McGillivray said he's gotten a couple of calls from voters asking why the five-year levy is missing from the ballot. He also said he heard from one "prominent member of our community who shall remain nameless" who was horrified to realize he'd voted and mailed in his ballot before noticing he'd missed the levy question.

Annette Newingham, Lane County Elections Division chief, said it's just the way things shook out this year on most ballots. (Because of political affiliations and the way various district and ward boundaries overlap, there are 42 versions of the ballot in the Bethel School District alone.) There just wasn't space on the front side for the local option levy item, which includes a brief summary explaining the tax rate - $1 per $1,000 of of assessed value - and how the district would spend the money.

"Measures are always last, so if there's not room, it's gotta go on the back," Newingham said, noting that it's hardly unprecedented. Unfortunately, she said, ballot items can't "jump" like a newspaper article - they must be fully contained on one side of the ballot. With most of this year's Bethel ballots, that left a big gap of white space on the front side, which might lead voters to believe they've come to the end.

The Siuslaw School District is in a similar situation with its local option levy - although ballots mailed to Democrats had enough room for the levy on the front side, Superintendent Gerald Hamilton said.

Given that Democrats are generally more favorable to money measures, that could actually boost the levy's chances of passing. But Hamilton said all voters deserve a chance to weigh in.

"We want people to vote, so that's why we're doing our best on the local level to get the word out," he said.

While the unfortunate ballot placement might mean fewer votes on the levies, it won't affect the so-called "double majority" requirement, Newingham said. Any ballot that's cast, complete or not, counts toward that 50 percent-plus-one turnout requirement.

But Praus-Williamson said she worries there may be people who simply don't vote because the levy was the only item they cared about.

Newingham said voting is not something that should be rushed. Anyone who takes the time to read the instructions or look at the bottom of the ballot should realize it has two sides, she said.

"From my years of experience, there's always going to be someone who's going to go a little too fast and miss something," said Newingham, who's been with the division since 1990. "It's just human nature."

She e-mailed both the Bethel and Siuslaw districts about the ballot design two weeks ago, thinking they might want to mention it in materials distributed to voters.

McGillivray said it was too late, but that the district is trying to get the word out any way it can from now through May 16 to "vote both sides" of the ballot.