The good news and bad about Tuesday’s vote

There was a lot of backslapping and smiles going around in several counties as the votes started adding up that passed special purpose local option sales tax referendums Tuesday night in Houston, Baldwin, Jones, Pulaski and Wilkinson counties. A special 1 mill hospital tax was passed in Monroe County in hopes to keep itshospital afloat. The Jones and Wilkinson measures were E-SPLOSTs in support of education.

Passage, for those communities, we are sure is good news. However, what has to be disappointing, even in lopsided victories which most of the tallies were, only a small percentage of the citizenry bothered to care one way or the other. In the grand scope of things, that’s a problem.

For example, in Houston County in the November Presidential Election, 59,744 residents went to the polls to vote. Turnout was 76.74 percent. Tuesday, most of those folks stayed away. Only 3,493 thought it important enough to decide whether a penny tax was a good thing or a bad thing. Put another way, 3,493 people made the decision for 150,000-plus residents of Houston County, not to mention the thousands of travelers passing through the county on a daily basis.

Of course every county has its own motivation for seeking and passing a SPLOST. One would have thought that trying to save the Monroe County Hospital would have created more interest than it did, but 8,966 fewer voters showed up than they did last November. The low turnout created another problem in the Monroe County Commission District 2 race where six candidates were vying for the seat Jim Ham left vacant after his death last year. The sextet attracted 1,530 votes (3,721 votes were tallied county wide), but no candidate broke the 50 percent threshold and a runoff will be held in April between Chris Ham and Eddie Rowland. Turnout is generally lower in runoff elections.

While most citizens give lip service to supporting law enforcement, Pulaski County’s SPLOST, that will pay for public safety, Hawkinsville City Hall improvements, recreation, roads and bridges, hardly drew flies. Only 402 voters cast ballots where 3,599 voted last November. Baldwin County was in the same boat, 14,469 fewer voters turned out this time than voted last November.

Even for the counties where the referendums were E-SPLOST the vote totals were much lower than last November. In Jones County 11,242 fewer voters and in Wilkinson, 3,648.

It is an interesting dynamic. Voters tend to show up in presidential years to cast ballots for people they will most likely never see, but when it comes to their hard-earned cash and how it’s raised and spent locally, there seems to be little concern. Many of the counties passing these SPLOST measures can’t use the selling point Houston and Bibb have employed over the years that many of the dollars raised come from outside the county. The selling point for smaller counties has to be good ideas and trust.

Could it be that all the hyperbole about government mistrust does cascade down to the local level? Folks that don’t vote are, in a sense, voting. If they were upset, you can bet they would use such an occasion as Tuesday’s vote to send a clear message.

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "The good news and bad about Tuesday’s vote."