VOTER TURNOUT TUESDAY ONLY 13 PERCENT

Fewer than 13 percent of Cape Girardeau County's registered voters participated in Tuesday's election. The county has 43,060 registered voters. Only 5,800 cast a ballot.

County Clerk Rodney Miller said it is a shame that so few people take time to vote. "What this means, is that on a yes or no question, as few as 2,900 people made a decision in a county with about 60,000 people."

But that is the way voting typically goes for April elections, Miller said.

Forty-six absentee ballots were accidentally cast on the wrong punch cards. These ballots had to be counted by hand. These hand-counted absentee ballots ended up making the difference in at least one of Cape Girardeau's city fee increases.

Voters in Precinct 16, experienced a few troubles getting to their polling place at Hanover Lutheran Church on Perryville Road. The city closed a portion of the road Tuesday. Voters had to find alternate routes.

However, Miller said he hadn't heard any complaints from voters. He was notified of the city's plan to close the road Monday, which was too late to change the polling location.

Some voters also had questions about voter ID cards. Last month, the county clerk's office was inundated with responses after requesting changes on voter ID cards. Not all the changes were made by Tuesday's election.

Miller said voting wasn't restricted. "Anyone who was registered to vote could vote," he said. "We did complete some change of address forms at the polls, but I'm not aware of any problems."

In the election for Cape Special Road District board of directors, F. R. "Rock" Wilferth won with 1,749 votes. He beat Jon Mark Kasten, who had 1,572 votes.

In Public Water Supply District 1 vote for directors of sub-district 4, Harold Landgraf Sr. won with 87 votes, defeating Danny Stratton, who had 42 votes.

In Allenville, Raymond Holweg and Kim Wolfe were elected to the board of trustees. Each had 24 votes. They defeated Grace Givens who had 17 votes and W.D. Welker, who had 18 votes.

In the city of Delta, no candidates filed for mayor or alderman in ward 1.

But in a race for Delta City Collector, Brenda Crader beat Jerri L. Menz, 47 to 15. Donna McClard was elected alderman in ward 2 with 27 votes.

In the town of Whitewater, James Rex Hayes and Marilyn M. Crites were elected. Hayes had 9 votes and Crites 8.

No candidates filed in the town of Pocahontas or the town of Appleton.