Moore voters endorse school bond issue, re-elect mayor

Voters in Moore gave thumbs up to a $69.9 million school bond issue and renewed their mayor's contract for another four years Tuesday.

Unnofficial returns showed voters overwhelmingly re-elected incumbent mayor Glenn Lewis by a 3-to-1 margin over challenger Paul Jaynes, a former Marine.

Lewis earned 2,214 votes to Jayne's 521

Lewis said he was pleased by the results.

"I'm very happy," he said. "We have a really good team intact. I'm pleased the voters chose to keep us in place."

Lewis, who has served as mayor since 1994, said earlier this year he still had things he wanted to do.

"I still have a few things I want to finish. I want to be there when our new theater opens and I want to make some improvements for kids. I'd like to do a Little League stadium and accomplish some more things like that."

Though he was disappointed by the loss, challenger Paul Jaynes said he was happy "just to be on the ballot."

"It proves that I know at least 200 people," Jaynes said. "Honestly, the mayor has been around a while and he's got the name recognition. Plus he's done a pretty good job."

Jaynes said he appreciated those residents who voted for him and said he hadn't ruled out a future bid for office.

"I'm not ruling anything out," he said. "Every time that sun's up, I'm up and at it."

Tuesday evening's results were also good news for Moore school officials.

With all the district's 38 precincts counted -- portions of the Moore school district lie in Oklahoma City -- voters endorsed a $69.9 million school bond issue by more than 4,000 votes.

The issue received 8,143 yes votes to 3,319 no votes.

"I'm so excited I just don't know what to tell you," said Moore school superintendent Deborah Arato. "It looks like a great win."

The large percentage of yes votes, she said, showed that Moore school patrons "are supportive of their schools and of their school kids."

"It's wonderful," she said.

Proceeds from the bond issue will be used to fund construction of two new elementary schools for the district and several remodeling projects including a larger gymnasium for Westmoore High School and a new fine arts center for Moore High school.

"About 74 percent of the money will be used for construction cost," Arato said.

Tuesday evening's vote capped a winter election season which saw voters fight ice storms and a lack of electricity to cast their ballots.

And turnout, like earlier this year, was low.

"We only had about 9,000 vote in the Moore school bond vote," said county election board secretary, Paula Roberts. "We would have liked to have seen more people vote."

Roberts said absentee and absentee-in-person voting was also slow.

"I not sure what it was," she said. "Maybe voter apathy."