Cobb SPLOST Campaign Goes Down to the Wire

Cobb County’s SPLOST special election set for Tuesday has drawn 6,522 votes so far, according to numbers the county released Friday evening.

The 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax is the only item on the ballot. If the SPLOST passes, it will kick in Jan. 1, 2012, for four years and keep the overall sales tax in Cobb at 6 cents per dollar. If the referendum fails, the expiration of the current SPLOST Dec. 31 will result in a total sales tax of 5 percent in the county next year.

Official figures show that 2,088 people voted from Feb. 21 to March 4 at the county Board of Elections & Registration at the , 3,554 people voted in person this past week at the Board of Elections and five satellite locations, and 880 people submitted mail-in ballots.

The county sent out an additional 220 vote-by-mail ballots, which are due at the Lawrence Street post office by 5 p.m. Tuesday or the Board of Elections by 7 p.m. Tuesday to count. Given that the September 2005 SPLOST referendum passed by 114 votes out of some 40,000 cast, those remaining mail ballots could be important.

The early votes represent about 1.7 percent of Cobb’s 392,589 active registered voters, county spokesman Robert Quigley reported.

More than 214,000 people voted in Cobb County in the general election Nov. 2; fewer than 23,000 returned for the runoff four weeks later for three judicial races.

Cobb projects that the 1-cent tax will produce $492 million over four years to pay for capital improvements across the county, including transportation and parks.

Of that total, an will be spent on projects in East Cobb. They include transportation projects totalling $43 million: 

-- Cobb Parkway at Windy Hill Road: Addition/extension of turn lanes and other intersection improvements; $3.5 million.

-- Hembree Road (Pope High School): Lengthen turn lane and other improvements around school entrance; $250,000.

-- Lower Roswell Road (Woodlawn Drive to Davidson Road): Widening and addition of turn lanes and a median; $8 million.

-- Paper Mill Road (Sope Creek Elementary School): Add and lengthen turn lanes into the school driveway; $950,000.

-- Post Oak Tritt Road (Hightower Trail Middle School): New turn lanes and other access points into the school; $475,000.

-- Sandy Plains Road (East Piedmont Road to Ebenezer Road): Add median; $4.9 million.

-- Windy Hill Road East (I-75 to Powers Ferry Road): Add median for safety and operational improvements; $8 million.

-- Windy Hill Road West (I-75 to Cobb Parkway): Widen and add median; $17 million

Parks and recreational projects in East Cobb total $12.6 million:

-- The Art Place: Interior renovations; $94,000.

-- East Cobb Park: Americans with Disabilities Act improvements; $25,000.

-- Fullers Park: Replace concession and tennis center buildings, renovate fields, replace scoreboards, renovate recreation center interior; $2.967 million.

-- Hyde Farm: Restore historical buildings; $3.5 million.

-- Mount Bethel Park: Replace concession building and scoreboard; $557,000.

-- Mountain View Aquatic Center: Air quality improvements, refinish pool surfaces, paint interior; $1.353 million.

-- Sewell Park: Replace concession and pool bath buildings; renovate fields and swimming pool, replace scoreboards; $2.165 million.

-- Terrell Mill Park: Replace concession and tennis center buildings, renovate fields and replace scoreboards; $2.527 million.

SPLOST supports and opponents,  Feb. 23, continue to push for every vote. After the weather dampened turnout for demonstrations last weekend, both sides tried again sunny skies Sunday.

No early voting is allowed Monday. Polls Tuesday will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

You can check your voter registration status and polling place at Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s website. Cobb offers maps of the polling places here.

Cobb Elections Director Janine Eveler said that tabulating the votes Tuesday will take the same amount of time with the one-issue election as with a full ballot because her office has to get the reports from the same number of polling places, all of which are using electronic machines. The results will be available on thecounty government website and on Cobb Channel 23 on Comcast cable television.

East Cobb Patch will have continuing coverage of the voting on Election Day.