WARM SPRINGS, OR—Members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have decided to spend nearly $11 million to build a new school. The vote was essentially a re-do of a referendum that failed in May due to inadequate voter turnout.
Nearly three quarters of the tribal members who cast a vote in that first election favored the plan. Still, it failed due to a provision in the tribes’ constitution that requires at least 33 percent of all members over the age of 21 cast a ballot. Just by comparison, only 22 percent of registered voters turned out in Multnomah County for the May primary. And that percentage doesn’t include all those who could legally vote but never registered.
