Tuesday's Nebo bond election has ended in more questions than answers and will lead to more legislation, whatever the results.

The $160 million bond and accompanying leeway tax are still up in the air, pending a complete canvassing of all votes, including at least 61 absentee and 103 provisional ballots. Both measures passed by fewer than 200 votes.

Sens. Howard Stephenson and Curt Bramble, incensed by what they see as an effort by the school district to exclude the most voters possible by staging a June election instead of in November, have opened a bill file that will call for all such bond elections to be held in November from here on out.

"To have a $160 million debt commitment foisted on the taxpayers of the school district is unconscionable when you only have 10 percent of the people voting on it," Stephenson said. "It's really un-American."

Several years ago, the state Legislature eliminated January and May bond elections, citing similar concerns. The options left open at the time were June and November. If the senators' bill passes, there would be no options left.

"It would be nice to have options," said Nebo spokeswoman Lana Hiskey. "We only have certain windows when we open schools."

Hiskey and district administrators have said they held the election in June to get a longer construction window if it passed, not to get the fewest voters to the polls.

Depending on the July 1 results of the canvass, administrators could face a number of scenarios:

• Both the bond and tax could pass. Odds are that the district would immediately go forward with construction plans. The bond would pay for two new junior high schools and five elementary schools. (The previous bond, at $140 million, was used to build high schools.)

• Both measures could fail, leaving the district to go back to the drawing board. The district is growing at a rate of 700 more students than it graduates annually. That amounts to a new, full elementary school each year.

• One could pass and the other fail. If the bond passes, but the tax increase fails, does the district build the schools anyway and massage the numbers to get them running? "That's an interesting scenario and something we're all thinking about," Hiskey said.

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• Bond passes in Nebo district by 122 votes