Voter turnout light on Tuesday
Apr. 2—Voter turnout was slow on a chilly, rainy Tuesday at the Donald E. Clark Justice Center.
Joplin residents went to the polls to decide City Council and school board candidates and a 12-year renewal of a three-eights-cent capital improvement sales tax.
Stephen Fuller, who said he's been an election judge for a few years, called Tuesday morning's turnout slow and noted he had 54 voters by about 11 a.m.; the precinct has 1,979 registered voters.
Fuller said he believed the low turnout was due to the small number of local issues on the ballot, and it wasn't a national election but instead a municipal and school board election.
"When we vote in November, everybody will be out en masse," Fuller said. "There will be lines out the door and around the block. In the fall, the presidency and Congress will be a big deal."
Still the local issues are important, he said; these elections have a direct effect on the community, especially the renewal of the sales tax for Joplin's infrastructure projects.
Voter Ellen Carter said Joplin's sales tax renewal was on her mind.
"I'm a big believer in continuing to better the city," Carter said. "We've seen what the sales tax has done in the past, and I think we need to continue to work on the issues that the sales tax will address, like infrastructure."
While Carter said she knows that people are interested in national elections, she also believes local elections have the most impact on residents' lives. People not only need to participate, but educate themselves before they come out to vote, she said.
"So many decisions are made locally that impact our lives every day," Carter said. "I need to know about the candidates and what they stand for, and express my opinion on who should be representing us. That's what you do by voting."
Voter Jack Belden entered the Justice Center with a two-handed wave to greet the election workers.
The former Joplin mayor said the capital improvement sales tax was the main issue for him. He wanted to make sure it passed and said he believed the city is making good use of the money. The tax was first put on the ballot in 2004 and renewed in 2014. He thought the renewal would be approved but said a person can never be sure when the word "tax" is on the ballot.
"Local is the best bargain for your tax dollars," Belden said. "You lose something when it goes to Jeff City or Washington; you never get all your money back. You get more than your money back locally, I think."
Belden said he encourages people to vote in local elections, adding that if people weren't allowed to vote, they would really want to vote.
"They would want that right back real fast," Belden said. "You look at places like Russia that had a bunch of people that took their lives in their hands to vote against Putin. Everybody has their right to their opinion. You may not agree with it, but they have a right to it."
Jasper County Clerk Charlie Davis on Tuesday said power had been restored to the county courthouse in Carthage after an overnight storm that caused damage around the square and left 3,000 in the city without power during the peak of the outage.
Voting results are available at joplinglobe.com, and further details will be included in Thursday's Joplin Globe.
