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Results expected for NCFPD Proposition A election by Nov. 1, fire chief says

Ballots were due for the North County Fire Protection District's Proposition A election by 8 p.m. on Thursday.

The proposition, if approved by two-thirds of voters in the district 92-square mile area, would levy a new tax of $5 per month, per parcel of owned property, to pay for construction, maintenance and improvements of fire stations in the North County Fire Protection District over the next two decades.

So what happens now that all the votes have been turned in?

First, the consultant that is running the election for the fire district – David Taussig and Associates – will count all of the ballots, before even beginning to tally how many votes there are for and against passing Proposition A, according to NCFPD Chief Stephen Abbott.

In any other year, the district may have asked the San Diego County Registrar of Voters to oversee the election. However, the registrar's office is not running any elections this year while it overhauls its voting systems. And since there's no requirement the registrar's office be involved, the fire district was able to hire the Taussig company to run the election.

The consultant will, however, validate signatures on ballots with the registrar's office before tabulating the votes, Abbott said.

The district anticipates voting results will be available by Friday, Nov. 1, Abbott said. The proposition needs to be approved by two-thirds of voters who participate in the election – not two-thirds of the approximately 28,000 voters in the NCFPD's boundaries, according to Abbott.

The new tax is necessary, fire district officials say, because many of the district's facilities are outdated – there's a documented need for at least $26.5 million to meet facility standards, the fire district said in a newsletter published ahead of the election. Proposition A, if passed, is expected to raise about $1 million per year, or $20 million over the 20 years it will be in effect for.

Seven of NCFPD's 11 facilities – including four of its five fire stations – are nearing or past the end of their originally-intended life span of 50 years, according to the newsletter.

"(Proposition A) is to replace ageing and obsolete fire stations to bring them up to industry standards and best safety practices," NCFPD Chief Stephen Abbott said. "We've got two that are over 50 years old, one that's in a 30-year-old modular building and then another that is partially in a modular building."

 

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