VOTERS AUTHORIZE '94 WARD VOTE; TURNOUT SMALL, BUT MARGIN BIG

The few voters who went to the polls in Cape Girardeau Tuesday overwhelmingly endorsed a measure that will enable the city to move from at-large to ward city council elections in April.

With only about 10 percent of registered voters casting ballots Tuesday, the ward election issue passed 1,462-415, or by a margin of 77-22 percent.

Voters also approved the city's plan to annex Twin Lakes subdivision, situated off of Hopper Road, just west of Interstate 55, by a vote of 1,584-302 (83-16 percent).

Twin Lakes voters approved the measure 94-37 (72-28 percent). The annexation issue required passage both in the city of Cape Girardeau and in Twin Lakes.

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller said he wasn't surprised by the low turnout.

"Neither of the issues on the ballot were controversial," he said. "It's really kind of what you expected, but when you're talking about 10 percent you're talking about a low turnout."

Regardless, city officials were pleased that the ward election measure passed so that the city finally can implement ward elections without the threat of legal challenges.

Last November, voters approved a similar ballot issue despite warnings from the city attorney that the ill-designed measure was neither legally sound nor sufficiently precise.

A Zone Election Committee was formed to redraw ward boundaries varying as little from the approved measure as possible for a new proposal to be resubmitted to voters.

The committee also clarified other issues that pertained to ward elections and the city charter.

Former mayor Howard Tooke was chairman of the committee. He said Tuesday he hoped passage of the "cleaned up" version of the measure will enable a smooth transition from at-large to ward elections.

"That's what we tried our best to do," Tooke said. "I'm glad it passed. The consequences if it didn't pass wouldn't be beneficial to anyone."

If Tuesday's measure had failed, the city would have been forced to implement the previously approved issue and likely face legal challenges.

"Some people seemed to have the idea that it was a vote on ward elections or not," Tooke said. "But once the people have spoken, you can't change that, and we had no intentions of thwarting the effort to switch to wards.

"The charge of the committee was simply to make it work, and it will work. If you get good people, it doesn't make any difference what your system is."

Tooke praised the work of the committee, which was composed of more than 20 citizens.

"It was too big and unwieldy," the former mayor said the group. "But there was not a great deal of dissension on it. Everybody seemed to be satisfied with what we finally came up with."

City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said he too was pleased with Tuesday's vote.

"Whether you were for the zones or not, that was not really the issue," Fischer said. "The issue (Tuesday) was to clean it up and make it workable.

"The whole thing is that the people had spoken last fall, and what we needed to do was pass this measure to enable the city to make that transition."

In April, voters will select a council member from each of three new districts: Wards 1, 2 and 6. In April 1996, voters will select council members from Wards 3, 4 and 5.