Federal Way voters are approving South King Fire & Rescue’s levy proposition, at least according to ballot returns as of Aug. 3 in the 2023 primary election.
Voters are also sending incumbent Jennifer Jones, and likely, challenger Daniel Kukhar, to the general election for the Federal Way School District Director position 2 seat. Jones earned two-thirds of the vote alone, and Kukhar has a 6% lead over Robert Ribaudo.
However, not all ballots have been counted: 310,851 ballots had been counted by Wednesday afternoon, with an estimated 103,000 left to count, according to King County. Because Washington is a vote-by-mail state, the final tally will take several days to calculate.
The final results are certified Aug. 15.
Federal Way School District Director Position 2
Incumbent school district director Jennifer Jones earned 66.6% of the Wednesday afternoon tally, more than challengers Daniel Kukhar (19.3%) and Robert Ribaudo (13.4%) combined.
That means Jones is guaranteed a spot in the general, and Kukhar is set to be her challenger unless Ribaudo can close the 800+ vote gap between them.
South King Fire & Rescue Proposition 1
The levy lid lift for our region’s fire service has passed by a healthy margin.
Voters supported the proposition by 55.8% as of Wednesday afternoon. 44.2% of voters said no to it.
The proposition needs only a simple majority (>50%) to pass.)
This lid lift will reauthorize a $1.50 per $1,000 tax levy rate for 2024, with annual increases of up to 6% in each of the five subsequent years. If not approved, the regular $1.50 levy rate would have fallen to below $1.25 due to legal limitations, according to the fire district.
Firefighters are responding to more calls, SKFR said, and passing the proposition would maintain “an effective level of service.”
General election
Ballots for the general election are mailed out Oct. 18, and general election day is Nov. 7.
All other electoral races this year in Federal Way earned only two challengers, meaning they won’t appear on the primary ballot and will instead be decided in the November general. (Write-in candidates can still challenge those running unopposed.) Those races include:
Federal Way City Council
Position 1: Lydia Assefa-Dawson (incumbent), Mark Greene
Position 3: Susan Honda (incumbent), Roger Flygare
Position 5: Jack Walsh (incumbent), Katherine Festa
Position 7: Linda Kochmar (incumbent), Denise Yun
Federal Way School Board of Directors
District 3: Luckisha Phillips (incumbent), Christopher Dowllar
District 5: Gavin Downing, Joan Marie Murphy
South King Fire & Rescue Commissioners
Position 4: Mark Thompson (incumbent), Gregory Baruso
Position 5: Craig Burrus (Running unopposed)
Lakehaven Water & Sewer District Commissioner
Position 1: Leonard (Len) Englund (incumbent, running unopposed)
