FARGO-Results of the Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion special assessment vote won't be known for weeks, according to an official working with the Cass County Joint Water Resource District.
Most of the 50,129 ballots sent to property owners and local governments are being counted by machine, but there is "a stack of an inch or two" that the machines didn't recognize and must be counted by hand, said Eric Dodds, a spokesman for diversion efforts.
The goal is to have all ballots counted by the next water district meeting May 14, he said.
The last day for ballots to be turned in was Thursday.
The assessment will almost certainly pass, given the unequal weight to Cass County and the city of Fargo. They had 56 percent of all available votes and both governments voted "yes."
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Still, the water district will analyze how the vote went for different groups, Dodds said.
Under state law with special assessments undertaken by water districts, the value of each vote is equal to the dollar amount of the assessment on each property owner or local government. A homeowner's ballot might be worth a few thousand votes, but a large business's ballot might be worth hundreds of thousands. Local governments can have millions of votes.
The maximum amount to be financed is $725 million, so there were 725 million votes.
The water district, a member of the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Board of Authority, is the entity financing the local share of the proposed $1.8 billion project. District and other diversion officials have said the assessment is a guarantee of repayment to assure bond investors, but actual repayment will be made with county and Fargo sales taxes.
