Tax issue success tied to lack of opposition

by Karen E. Culp

SBJ Staff

The Feb. 3 vote on two taxation issues passed in every precinct in the city. The tax issues passed overall by earning about 75 percent of the votes.

Voter turnout was even higher than predicted, although the nearly 22 percent turnout is nothing to get too excited about, said Southwest Missouri State University assistant professor of political science and election specialist, Dr. Jillian Glather.

"When you have 22 percent of those registered voting, that's not a majority of the registered voters in town, so the danger is that a minority of people are making the decision for the majority," Glather said.

Springfield has typically been below average in its voter turnout numbers, Glather said, citing the last November presidential election when the country's average turnout was about 60 percent, while Springfield's fell a few percentage points behind that.

"Voter apathy is getting a lot worse. A low turnout in a situation like this might have been a reflection of low opposition to the issues," Glather said.

The fact that there was no organized opposition also contributed to the low turnout, Glather said. No one group emerged to send negative messages about this campaign effort.

The overall 75 percent favorable vote was strong, nonetheless, Glather said. Most presidential candidates do not earn that high a percentage of the popular vote, she added.

The campaign effort, though strong, was probably not as successful in earning votes for the tax issues as the visible support displayed by those interested in the issue, Glather said.

"When you have an issue on the ballot as opposed to a person, it's much harder. Still, people are most likely to go with what they hear and see most, and you heard a lot of support for these issues in the media," Glather said.

The willingness to commit the sales- tax money to capital improvement projects proved that citizens see those projects as helping the city and also see that they are getting completed "on time and with a minimum of fuss," Glather said. The support for the tourism tax shows interest in the city's future, she added. "The fact that people supported this tax overwhelmingly shows that many people are really looking at Springfield's landscape as it shapes up in the future. People are concerned about what the city will look like in years to come," Glather said.

Looking at the precinct-by-precinct reports posted on the election's web site, it can be noted that each precinct passed the issue by a majority, although a few precincts passed the issues by not as strong a majority. The lowest percentages of yes votes came from three precincts in Zone 1 (northwest Springfield). Precinct 16C passed the tourism tax issue by 57 percent. Precinct 16A passed it by 57 percent and Precinct 16B passed the tax by 56 percent. In comparison, a precinct in Zone 2 (northeast Springfield) passed the tourism tax by 88 percent (Precinct 11, located east of Highway 65 and south of Chestnut Expressway). Precincts 16A, B, and C are in the middle of Zone 1.

The highest total number of votes cast, when assembling the precinct reports, came from Zone 4 (southeast Springfield). That zone also has the highest number of registered voters. About 8,529 of Zone 4's 27,741 voters cast votes Feb. 3. Only 3,027 of Zone 1's 13,369 voters voted, and the least number of votes came from that zone. Zones 2 and 3 had 4,754 and 4,187 votes cast, respectively.

INSET CAPTION:

'Voter apathy is getting a lot worse. A low turnout stuation like this might have been a reflection of low opposition to the issues.'[[In-content Ad]]