Unofficial results: West Valley residents vote ‘no’ on Litchfield Elementary, Agua Fria overrides

West Valley voters have opted to not renew school district budget overrides that have been in place for nearly three decades, meaning two area school districts could lose close to $10 million annually, at least according to unofficial election results posted on the Maricopa County Elections Department website Tuesday evening.

Residents voted down override measures on the ballot for both Agua Fria Union High School District and Litchfield Elementary School District. 

Both districts have said if their respective 15% budget overrides fail, it could result in the loss of critical programming, such as the arts, full-day kindergarten, availability of school nurses and other staff and teaching positions.     

Not all ballots have been counted, and elections officials won’t know how many are left to be counted until tomorrow, or possibly even later in the week, according to Megan Gilbertson, a county elections spokesperson.   

Final results are expected to be available Friday, Nov. 5. 

Unofficial results show that AFUHSD saw a 20.21% voter turnout. 46% (8,656 ballots) voted to continue the budget override and 54% (10,294 ballots) voted not to continue the override that has been in place for nearly 30 years. 

19,262 ballots have so far been counted.  

The unofficial results showed 23.58% of eligible voters turned out to vote for the LESD ballot measure. 45% (6,348 ballots) voted to keep the override, and 55% (7,803 ballots) voted it down. 

15,696 ballots have so far been counted.  

Budget overrides are funded by the secondary property taxes of district residents. 

When passed by voters, overrides remain in place for seven years. Districts will often hold elections in the fourth year of an override in order to keep a consistent level of funding. 

Override funding will decrease by one-third and again by two-thirds over the coming years, with funding fully eliminated over two years. However, it may be possible for the districts to put a ballot measure in front of voters again as soon as next year.

268,083 voters cast a ballot countywide--about 19% of total eligible voters, according to early tallies. 

13 school district overrides came in front of Maricopa County voters.  Five overrides failed, and eight passed, according to preliminary results.  

CLICK HERE  to view the full county jurisdictional election results.