Low voter turnout predicted for special election in St. Charles County
St. Charles County’s elections director predicts the fate of a countywide sales tax will be decided tomorrow by less than 10 percent of the registered voters in St. Charles County.
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Rich Chrismer said there are 240,000 registered voters in the county. If 10 percent cast their votes, that would mean his staff would have about 24,000 ballots to count.
He doesn’t expect to see that many ballots, though. He said his office has fielded very few questions about the election.
“It doesn’t seem like there’s very much activity out there,” Chrismer said.
The lone issue on the ballot is a sales tax increase of 0.05 of a cent to pay for an emergency communications system.
Mark Schlinkmann has written more about some of the politics surrounding the ballot issue here and here.
The polls open at 6 a.m. They close at 7 p.m. Chrismer said he would love for his prediction to be wrong.
Are you planning to vote? If you aren’t, why aren’t you?
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I never even got my voter card so i dont know ho
You bet I am going to vote. I am going to vote no, loud and clear. How much money does this one issue election cost St. Charles County? When will the spending and taxing stop!!
When our elected representatives aren’t 6,700 miles away?
All of us in our household are going to vote. In review of this proposal it seems to be the best for all of St. Charles County and keeps local governments like St. Charles city, St. Peters, and O’Fallon out of the mix which will most likely save all of us a few bucks in the long run and keep local governmental bickering out of the picture.
I’ll vote on my way home from work this evening. I’ve always believed it’s the duty of citizens to make their positions clear no matter how mundane the issue. If we don’t, than we don’t have any excuse to complain when a tiny fraction of voters decide issues that effect everyone else.
I voted at lunch and was the 39th person to vote at my location… poor!!!
DWI…. this has nothing to do with the Cities. Actaully this would bring the County up to the same standard that O’Fallon has already gone to. I’m not sure is St. Charles and St. Peters cities around did too.
It’s interesting that even O’Fallon was able to find the money for this without a tax increase and you seem to want to give control to the county.
The only thing run worse that O’Fallon, St. Charles and St. Peters is St. Charles County!!!
Meanwhile, the voters approved yet another tax increase for communicaitons. The same week you saw an article outlining that governments were not using the previous allotted money for communication upgrades appropriately. The same week that GM (who is getting billions of tax dollars in a bail out) got a tax break from the Assessor.
WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE THINKING? Here is an idea: Let’s start holding the elected officials and government departments accountable and STOP VOTING FOR TAX INCREASES.
Here are few prime examples: How many fire districts are needed in St. Charles County? Have you driven by a fire department on a training day? Do you think it is a overkill that they all drive hook and ladder trucks to and from the training? How many vehicles are needed by Street Departments? How many vehicles are needed by Planning?
Has anyone attempted to build anything in the county/surrounding municipalities here lately? Jesus, it is almost impossible. Every division throws on more and more requirements.
The sad part, these government agencies are funded by private businesses and tax revenue. The typical government worker is so wrapped up in “kingdomicitis” they do not even realize this fact. So in the end they are choking themselves out.
As a private business owner, and a 100% self made individual, I can honestly say, we need to start really looking at the direction we are heading. I do not see a happy ending at this time.
JD - One bone of contention…. PRIVATE BUSINESSES DON’T FUND ANYTHING! Business don’t have money. Consumers have money. Businesses simply pass the cost along to their consumers. So in the end the added regulations result in a higher product cost paid by consumers.
This is actually a good lesson for everyone. Anytime a politian talks about raising fees/taxes on businesses just remember that businesses don’t pay anything… it will be passed on to the consumer. If the fees/taxes are to high the consumer will stop buying the product and the business will go out of business.
One modification to your statement, HUH, businesses DO have money, however that money is channeled to shareholders and sheltered back into the company through practices which may lower the taxable bottom line. This is the reason for a corporation’s existence. The average individual taxpayer does not have these methods at his or her disposal.