A $3 million bond for Blaine School District continued to edge toward approval, according to unofficial ballot results released Wednesday, Feb. 15.

The latest count totals also showed voters approving levy requests for all seven school districts in Whatcom County.

As of Wednesday, about 60.75 percent of voters were voting yes for the Blaine bond. That was up from 60.3 percent on Tuesday.

"We are most encouraged by the bump in the numbers," said Ron Spanjer, superintendent for the Blaine School District.

The bond needs 40 percent voter turnout from the last general election - a threshold it has met - and 60 percent approval to pass.

Spanjer remained cautious after seeing the latest totals.

"What we don't know are how many ballots are left to count," he said. "We're certainly more confident than we were last night (Tuesday)."

The Auditor's Office will release the next ballot count Thursday, Feb. 16.

Because Whatcom County government offices will be closed Friday - one of 10 closure days planned for 2012 to save money - and Monday, for Presidents Day, results for the fourth round of ballot counting will not be released until Tuesday.

The Feb. 14 special election marked the first time the Secretary of State gave the Whatcom County Auditor's Office permission to start processing ballots a day before Election Day.

What that meant was that the Auditor's Office could put received ballots into its optical scan equipment starting on Monday.

But the equipment was set so results couldn't be generated or released until after 8 p.m. on Election Day, which is the deadline for voters to return their ballots.

Elections officials said the special election also was a test run for November, when the presidential election is expected to draw a huge number of voters.

Depending on when people turn in their ballots, this approach could allow more ballots to be included in the initial election night results and allow people to know sooner.

Results of this election will be certified Feb. 28.