Cape Girardeau County clerk: Smoking ban vote will boost turnout

If Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark Summers' prediction bears out, more city voters will take to the polls Tuesday for an April election than since 1999, when they were lured to the ballot box by statewide propositions on carrying concealed weapons and establishing a sales tax on cellphones to fund 911 services.

Clark Summers said the relatively high turnout will be because of one issue: the proposed smoking ban.

"We have a much more heated issue with the smoking issue on the ballot," Clark Summers said. "I think the smoking issue will really bring out more voters."

Clark Summers predicts that 30 percent of Cape Girardeau voters and 25 percent of the overall county's 51,640 registered voters will cast ballots, translating into about 12,910 votes cast countywide. That would be up from April elections in the past, including 17 percent last year and 4.8 percent in 2009.

Still, April elections don't get the turnout she'd like to see, she said, especially in comparison to November elections. Last fall, for example, more than half of the registered voters in the county went to the polls in November.

"People for some reasons don't get out and vote in April like they do when there's a presidential election," she said.

The other factor that will contribute to a higher-than-usual turnout, Clark Summers said, is two Cape Girardeau measures that, if approved, will generate $72 million to pay for a new wastewater treatment plant. Proposition 1 asks voters to extend a quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax to pay back bonds authorized by Proposition 2.

Clark Summers said there aren't really any high-interest issues outside of Cape Girardeau's borders. Some precincts don't have one issue on the ballot, she said, and others only have a few. Six precincts are closed completely for this election: Byrd 5 and 6, Brown Owl, Hanover, Burfordville, Nell Holcomb and Oriole/Neelys Landing.

Four other precincts have been combined for the election due to the small percentage of voters eligible to vote on issues or candidates. The Campster/Pecan Grove precinct will be voting at the Gordonville precinct on the Dutchtown Board of Trustees race and the Delta School Board; Fruitland, Pocahontas and Millersville precincts will all be voting at the Oak Ridge precinct on the Oak Ridge School Board election.

Elections are costly regardless of how many people vote. The 115 paid election workers make anywhere from $91 to $101 for the lengthy day and the overall election in Cape Girardeau County will likely cost more than $40,000, Clark Summers said.

Perry County Clerk Randy Taylor said his voter-turnout prediction is somewhere in the 10 to 12 percent range.

"I think it will be a light turnout in Perry County," he said. "We don't have the smoking issue on the ballot."

Perry County voters will decide an $8 million bond issue for Mineral Area Community College for new science labs, upgrades at the library and an addition to its Fredericktown center.

In Scott County, County Clerk Rita Milam said they'd be lucky to get 13 to 15 percent countywide.

Bollinger County Clerk Diane Holzum did not return phone calls last week seeking comment.

smoyers@semissourian.com

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