Area voters turn out heavily for GOP candidates; support 4 of 6 Missouri ballot issues

Voters in Cape Girardeau, Scott, Perry and Bollinger counties overwhelmingly cast their ballots for Donald Trump and every Republican statewide candidate in Tuesday’s election.

They also approved four state ballot issues by large margins and rejected two other measures, reflecting results statewide.

Voters locally and statewide said “yes” to extending a conservation sales tax, limiting campaign contributions, prohibiting new state or local sales taxes on services and requiring photo identification to vote. But they resoundingly said “no” to increasing cigarette taxes to fund early-childhood education programs and state roads and bridges.

Nearly 85 percent of those who voted in Bollinger County cast their ballots for president-elect Trump. The Republican businessman garnered 78 percent of the ballots in Perry County, nearly 76 percent in Scott County and 72 percent in Cape Girardeau County. Nearly 27,000 Cape Girardeau County voters chose Trump, compared to 8,400 who favored Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Those figures were much higher than statewide. Trump won nearly 57 percent of the vote in Missouri, compared to nearly 38 percent for Clinton.

Clinton won in only two precincts in Cape Girardeau County, both in the city of Cape Girardeau.

Voters at Precinct 2A, who voted at city hall, supported Clinton by a 55 percent to 35 percent margin. Voters in Precinct 2B, who cast ballots at the Shawnee Park Center, voted for Clinton by a nearly 52 percent to 45 percent margin.

The majority of voters in both precincts also backed the Democratic candidates for governor and U.S. senator.

In the U.S. Senate race, area voters strongly backed the re-election of Roy Blunt over his Democratic opponent, Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander.

Blunt won nearly 72 percent of the vote in Bollinger County; nearly 66 percent in Cape Girardeau County; 65 percent in Perry County; and 64 percent in Scott County, according to unofficial election returns.

Statewide, the race was much closer. Blunt garnered 49.3 percent of the vote to 46.2 percent for Kander.

In the race for governor, Republican Eric Greitens, a political newcomer, defeated Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster, 51 percent to 45 percent. But it was far from close in the four-county Southeast Missouri area where both candidates made campaign stops.

Koster was endorsed by the Missouri Farm Bureau and the National Rifle Association. Both organizations typically endorse Republicans. But neither endorsement seemed to matter to the voters.

Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, won 72 percent of the vote in Bollinger County, more than 66 percent of the vote in Perry County and nearly 66 percent of the vote in Scott and Cape Girardeau counties, according to election returns.

Southeast Missouri State University political-science professor Rick Althaus said Koster may have been helped by the endorsements but not enough to win.

“In Missouri, we used to be proud or our bellwether status.” But the Show-Me State increasingly has become Republican in its voting, he said.

Althaus said census figures show Missouri has a “whiter and older” population than the national average.

“We are no longer purple,” Althaus said of Missouri’s voting habits. “At the very least, we are leaning red.”

Ballot Issues

Voters in Cape Girardeau, Scott, Perry and Bollinger counties approved constitutional amendments 1, 2, 4 and 6 by wide margins.

Statewide, Amendment 1, which extends a sales tax for conservation and state parks for another decade, garnered more than 80 percent of the vote.

The measure received 85 percent of the vote in Perry County, nearly 81 percent of the vote in Cape Girardeau County, 78 percent in Scott County and 74 percent in Bollinger County.

Amendment 2, which limits campaign contributions, received nearly 70 percent of the vote statewide.

In the four-county area, the amendment received more than 72 percent of the vote in Cape Girardeau County, nearly 72 percent of the vote in Perry County, nearly 68 percent in Scott County and just under 65 percent in Bollinger County.

Amendment 4, which prohibits new state or local sales taxes on services, won with 57 percent of the vote statewide. Locally, it was much higher.

In Perry County, the measure earned 71 percent of the vote. The amendment garnered nearly 69 percent of the vote in Bollinger County, nearly 66 percent in Cape Girardeau County and almost 64 percent in Scott County.

The measure was promoted heavily by state and local Realtors’ groups. Scott Charton, spokesman for the Missourians for Fair Taxation group that championed the measure, called the election victory a “first-in-the-nation, pre-emptive strike against new sales taxes on everyday services.”

Amendment 6, the voter ID measure, was approved statewide by a 63 to 37 percent margin. Locally, voters supported the measure by an even wider margin.

The measure garnered nearly 74 percent approval in Scott County, 73 percent in Cape Girardeau County and 72 percent in Bollinger and Perry counties.

Statewide, voters rejected Amendment 3 and Proposition A. Area voters were on the same page.

More than 70 percent of Bollinger County voters who went to the polls opposed Amendment 3, the cigarette-tax measure to fund early-childhood education programs. The measure was opposed by 65 percent of the voters in Perry County, 60 percent in Perry County and nearly 60 percent in Cape Girardeau County.

Statewide, 59 percent of voters said “no” to the measure.

Missouri voters turned down Proposition A, which would have imposed a lesser tobacco tax to fund state roads and bridges. More than 55 percent of the voters rejected the measure.

Nearly 68 percent of Bollinger County voters opposed the measure. It was rejected by 62 percent of the voters in Scott County, 55 percent of voters in Cape Girardeau County and 54 percent of voters in Perry County.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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