Voter turnout only 8 percent in local ballots on state issues
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

Predictions of an extremely low voter turnout turned out to be true, not just in Wharton County, but state-wide.

Yesterday's election, which consisted mostly of proposed changes to the state constitution, also included a tax rate election for Louise ISD and a trustee race for Boling ISD.

Louise ISD voters, by a nine-vote margin, turned down a tax rate higher than the state's recommended rate (see related story, below), while Boling ISD voters chose Shawn Chilek over Jerry Svatek, 154 votes to 142, to fill a seat vacated by Bill Ford, who resigned in June.

Only 2,077 of Wharton County's more than 24,000 registered voters cast their votes, or 8 percent.

Secretary of State Phil Wilson had predicted overall voter turnout in the election would be low.

"Participation throughout early voting has been much lower than I would like to see," Wilson said Monday. "Based on these numbers and other factors, I am projecting an overall turnout of 9.5 percent of registered Texas voters."

Judy Owens, Wharton County's election administrator, said she was not surprised by the low turn-out, giv- en similar elections drew few voters in the past.

Texas' voters passed all 16 constitutional propositions on the ballot, which included some $9.75 billion in bond propositions. Wharton County voters bucked the state-wide trend on three measures, turning down Proposition 4, which calls for $1 billion in bonds for agency improvements in construction; Proposition 12, for $5 billion in bonds for transportation projects; and Proposition 16, which provides $250 million in bonds for water infrastructure in poor areas.

Owens said there were very few problems on Election Day, during which voters used only electronic voting machines.

"We had glitches in a couple of areas, but worked through them," Owens said.

Voters had little trouble using the nine consolidated polling sites on Election Day, although a few voters were somewhat unsure of where to cast their ballots.

"We had a lot of calls asking where polling sites were located before the election, which was good," Owens said, adding some people came to her office on Election Day to find out where to vote and were quickly taken care of by two workers hired to help out that day.

"They worked with me all day, and that really helped," Owens said. "I have three phone lines here, and they rang all day. I couldn't have done it without them."

Owens, who has overseen the county's transition from paper to electronic voting, said she feels she now has a system in place that makes for quick and accurate tallying of ballots.

"I've changed the way judges fill out their forms and made it easy for us to process the ballots," she said. "It worked smoothly."