Cinnaminson voters approved a $57.7 million school bond referendum by just nine votes in the September 15 special school election, an exceedingly close result that held up after counting mail-in and provisional ballots.
The first of two bond questions received 1,744 yes votes and 1,735 no votes, according to updated unofficial results from the Burlington County Clerk’s office. The nine-vote margin amounts to roughly one-quarter of one percentage point.
Election officials are still pursuing a small number of voters whose mail-in ballots require cure letters, but there are not enough outstanding ballots to affect the referendum’s outcome.
The ballot measure aimed to ease overcrowding and upgrade all five public schools in town.
Turnout was 24%, with 3,486 of Cinnaminson’s 14,497 registered voters casting ballots. Election Day voting accounted for 2,256 ballots, while 1,181 voters cast mail-in ballots and 49 voted provisionally.
Question 1 passed by a razor-thin margin, while voters decisively rejected a second bond proposal on the same ballot. On election night, it trailed by 23 votes.
Question 2, which sought to spend an additional $18.3 million, failed by 391 votes, with 1,927 voters opposing the measure and 1,536 supporting it. A total of 3,463 votes were cast on that question.
The results released Tuesday were updated to include returned mail-in ballots and eligible provisional ballots and remain unofficial, with the county noting that additional updates are still expected.
But while the final certified totals could move slightly as the remaining ballot issues are resolved, the number of outstanding cure ballots is insufficient to erase Question 1’s nine-vote advantage.
The September 15 contest was a special school election, held separately from November’s general election.