The Riviera ISD school board met at a regular meeting Wednesday night to canvass and approve election results of the May 8 bond election.

The bond election was conducted by Kenedy County Elections Administrator Roy Ruiz, who announced the official results, the costs of the total election, and voter turnout to the school board trustees.

Voters were voting on two propositions, one authorizing $18.5 million worth of bonds for new school buildings and another that would have raised the cap on taxes for maintenance and operations of the school district.

On proposition 1 to raise the tax cap, the official vote was only 50 in favor and 439 against.

On proposition 2 to authorize $18.5 million worth of bonds, the official vote was only 43 in favor and 450 against.

According to Ruiz, the total cost of the election was $3,862.64 for items including election judges, ballots, and voter machine programming.

Voter turnout for the bond election was 39.52 percent of total applicable voters who live within the Riviera ISD boundaries.

Ruiz said he expected turnout to be much higher due to the amount of heated discussions in the community surrounding the bond election.

“Never in my career of conducting elections have I had my job questioned as I have conducting this election,” Ruiz said. “Eating at a restaurant which was owned by someone who was believed to have been for the bond automatically made it seem as if I was in the same position. To make a generalization like that is wrong. However, when my wife asked me if I would ever conduct another election for Riviera ISD and I told her yes it’s because I would. I like the challenge and I am confident in my abilities.”

Riviera ISD school board president Sylvia Arguijo apologized on behalf of the board for any distress Ruiz may have felt.