Posted on 08/05/2007 12:42:53 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
NAPOLEONVILLE -- Eighty-five people were eligible to vote in an Assumption Parish election held two weeks ago.
Only one person did.
And she shouldn’t have.
On Friday, Tammy Gros of Pierre Part confirmed what documents in the parish Registrar of Voters Office show -- she cast the lone vote in the July 21 election and single handedly decided how $17,500 in taxpayers’ money should be spent on drainage over the next decade.
The trouble is, she lives just south of the drainage district’s boundaries and wasn’t eligible to vote on the measure. Officials say they aren’t sure why she was allowed to vote outside her district, and the mix-up has them puzzled about what should happen next.
The parish’s Police Jurors say the property-tax renewal approved by Gros -- which will cost taxpayers in that district $25 annually for each parcel of property they own -- should be voided. But the Secretary of State argues the tax will remain in effect unless one of the district’s 85 registered voters disputes the results by Sept. 19.
But certainty is hard to come by because no one in the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office can remember a situation when all the voters in a district abstained from an election. Nor can they recall a ballot item garnering just one vote, said Press Secretary
Jacques Berry with the Secretary of State’s Office.
The property-tax renewal, designed to generate money for upkeep on a drainage pump and levee along the district’s boundaries, encompassed a subdivision of roughly 50 houses -- officially referred to as the Lower Belle River Gravity Drainage District.
Its boundaries are Belle River to the west, Acme Land Belle River Sites to the north and east, and Day Spring Street to the south. Only the odd-numbered addresses on the north side of Day Spring Street are part of the district.
WRONG SIDE OF THE STREET
In what appears to be a gaffe by the Registrar of Voters, several even-numbered addresses on Day Spring Street were listed as eligible to vote on that district’s property tax, according to documents at the Registrar of Voters’ Office.
Tammy Gros, who declined to speak with a reporter, lives at 122 Day Spring St., making her ineligible to weigh in on the drainage issue. But, with the press of a button, she alone approved the tax renewal.
The measure was one of 10 tax renewals on the ballot in Assumption Parish, a total that included four parishwide and six regional propositions. All 10 passed, the other nine by substantial margins.
The next-to-smallest turnout was in precincts 1 and 18 of Ward 9 in Pierre Part, where just nine people voted, electing 8-1 to approve a tax renewal to support drainage, levee and hurricane protection.
The biggest turnout was for a parishwide tax benefiting Assumption Parish libraries, which attracted 971 voters, 823 of whom voted for the tax.
At least one official says he personally encouraged district residents to vote for the drainage tax. Ward Nine Police Juror Myron Matherne said he followed that request with two reminder phone calls to each home.
Matherne doesn’t live in the district and wasn’t eligible to vote on the measure himself.
"I told people there to go and vote, but I guess people either forgot about it or thought their neighbors were going to vote and weren’t really worried about it," he said.
Among the residents who stayed home that day, said a government official, was an Assumption Parish Poll Commissioner, one of those paid to man the polls on election days. Commissioners, however, aren’t always stationed at the poll where they are registered to vote.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
Officials say they know what they would have to do if no one voted or if the vote were disputed. The Police Jury would have to start from scratch, asking to have the measure included in an upcoming election and forwarding the request and the ballot item’s wording to the State Bond Commission and Secretary of State, Berry said.
"The law, as far as we can tell, says there is no majority if nobody votes. Whether the vote is 1 million to 1 million or zero to zero, it’s the same procedure," Berry explained.
Assumption Assessor Wayne "Cat" Blanchard said he thinks the lone ineligible voter made the best decision for the people in that area.
"I’m just glad it passed because even though it’s $25 a parcel, it’s very important for them to stay dry. It’s a small price to pay," Blanchard said. He added that he believes if some of the 85 voters had voted, they would have been in favor of the tax renewal.
Blanchard, who notes that Hitler was elected by one vote, added, "During the summer people are on vacation and just don’t realize how important it is."
Prior to the Daily Comet investigation that revealed the voter cast her ballot in error, Matherne said, "Whoever voted, tell them thank you."
Berry added that the Secretary of State followed procedure and approved the election under the assumption that the lone voter lived in the district. The Secretary of State does not supervise Registrar of Voters Offices.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates there are 23,388 people living in Assumption Parish. Of those, 15,324 are registered voters.
Assumption Parish Police Jury President Martin S. Triche and Registrar of Voters Consuella Skidmore could not be reached for comment.
I hope it stands. Teach the eligible voters a lesson. Too bad more money was not involved.
What do they care about the levees, the feds will take care of it.
Too bad there wasn’t a misprint in the ballot and it was $2500 a partial they had to pay.
If the eighty five people there don’t care why should I?
These tax renewal votes always seem to be held during a time when they are the only thing on the ballot. Of course, the powers that be made absolutely sure everyone was informed that this election was coming up.
the lib/dems have already started screaming about the disenfranchised voters!!!!
Just add it to “The Annals of Analhood” in the grate state of Louieseeanna?
School districts in Idaho have their own set of election rules. It is common for them to try to keep the polling date as quiet as possible so the only voters who speak on the issue are the school employees who will benefit. It's an underhanded way to do business.
Serves the idiots right for failing to vote. Hope that they get stuck with it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.