Even after a court ordered the Buchanan County Clerk to repair erroneous ballot language in Tuesday’s school district initiative, it appears officials still didn’t get the ballot quite right, at least to the untrained eye.

But lawyers for the district and the proposed bond sale agree the unusual language will pass court scrutiny.

 

The original problem stemmed from what was called a “clerical error,” in which the ballot question reported the total amount of the bond issue at about $10 million less than intended.

Officials hope to use $42 million to build two new elementary schools and install air conditioning several others.

But the ballot language doesn’t quite match up to that objective (emphasis added):

“…shall The School District of St Joseph issue its general obligation bonds in the amount of $42,000,000 for the purposes of acquiring, constructing, renovating, furnishing, and equipping school facilities, including a new elementary school, and air conditioning and/or renovating some existing school facilities?”

St Joseph lawyer Stephen Briggs is General Counsel for the St Joseph School District. Briggs says the ballot language is not a problem.

“Obviously the ballot language, if it passes, would require the school district to build at least one new elementary school, because that’s in the ballot language,” Briggs said. “But it does not restrict the district from building a second elementary school given the other general language of the ballot.”

Briggs says the district’s bond counsel, Gilmore & Bell of Kansas City, Mo., agrees with his assessment. Briggs believes the ballot question would stand up under scrutiny in the courts.

“In my opinion, and that of bond counsel, the answer is yes, it would pass judicial muster,” Briggs said.

Last month, Buchanan County Circuit Judge Weldon Judah ordered the county to mail out new, corrected absentee ballots to hundreds of residents who had already cast votes on the flawed ballots.