Whitefish residents will vote in two separate elections that will overlap in the coming weeks, and that has prompted a word of caution from the Flathead County Election Department.

Mail ballots go out Wednesday, April 8, to Whitefish city voters for a ballot measure to raise the city’s resort tax from 2 to 3 percent. The city proposes to use the money generated by the extra 1 percent tax to pay its portion of a conservation easement protecting the city’s water supply in Haskill Basin.

The resort tax measure ballots must be mailed back to the Election Department at the Flathead County Courthouse in Kalispell or dropped off at the courthouse by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28. Ballots also may be dropped off at Whitefish City Hall. Those dropping off ballots in Whitefish after hours may put them in the slot for water bills on the front wall of City Hall.

Flathead County is conducting the election for the resort tax ballot measure. Whitefish currently has 4,138 registered voters. Any city resident who is not registered to vote may register at the Election Department up until 8 p.m. April 28.

Separately, the Whitefish School District is conducting an election on Tuesday, May 5, to elect school board trustees and decide a proposed $40,000 elementary levy. Polls on May 5 will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with voting at the Whitefish School District Office board room at the Whitefish Middle School.

The Whitefish School District conducts its own election, although voter registration for residents living within the Whitefish School District is handled by the county Election Department. April 6 is the deadline to register for the Whitefish school election.

About 3,000 permanent absentee ballots for the school election will be mailed April 15. Those ballots should be returned to the address on the school election envelope, or must be received by 8 p.m. on May 5 at the Whitefish School District Office. 

County Election Recording Manager Monica Eisenzimer cautioned Whitefish voters not to combine their absentee ballots for the school election with the resort tax measure mail ballots because they are separate elections — one conducted by the county and one by the Whitefish School District — with different ballot deadlines.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.