No contest in Cape school board election

Election judge Loretta Schneider advised friends not to take the time to vote absentee in today's Cape Girardeau school board election; their votes wouldn't make a difference.

Only two candidates -- incumbent Laura Sparkman and retired Secret Service agent Paul Nenninger -- are on the election ballot for the two available seats on the board.

No other issues are on the ballot in Cape Girardeau.

"It's a waste of time," said Schneider, one of four election judges who will be manning the polling place at LaCroix United Methodist Church today.

It's also costly. Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark said the election will cost the school district between $16,000 and $18,000. That's the estimated expense associated with public notices of the election, election judges, hauling voting equipment to the polls and printing of ballots, she said.

Four election judges, including two supervisory judges, will be stationed at each precinct. The regular judges will earn $91 for their efforts; supervisory judges will be paid $101, Clark said.

"The whole thing is a waste in my opinion," Clark said of having to hold the Cape Girardeau school board election.

But under state law, she said, the polls will be open even though there's no contested race for Cape Girardeau school board. The polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

Clark and her staff spent part of Monday setting up voting equipment in 17 polling precincts in Cape Girardeau. Three of those precincts also are home to a minority of voters who live in the Jackson School District, where four candidates are vying for two school board seats. In the other 14 precincts, only two uncontested candidates for the Cape Girardeau school board are on the ballot.

As a result, turnout will be low in Cape Girardeau, Clark said. In contrast, contested races for mayor, Ward 3 alderman and school board in Jackson are expected to draw voters there.

Under state law, school districts don't have to hold elections when the number of candidates equals the number of board positions available. But that doesn't apply in this case, Clark said. Three people initially filed for the Cape Girardeau school board. Don Howard Jr. withdrew his candidacy Jan. 17, one day after the filing period ended.

Even though Howard withdrew his candidacy before election ballots were printed, an election was required under state law, Clark said.

"It is unfortunate our hands are tied," she said. "It is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion." Schneider predicted that she and other election judges at the Cape Girardeau precincts will have plenty of time on their hands today. Many of them, she said, will have time to read the newspaper or magazines, or even play Solitaire.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123