Turnout for SPLOST vote 'very slow'

UNDATED - Voter turnout continued to be "very slow" Tuesday afternoon for the SPLOST referendum in Hall County.

"Since noon, one of our largest precincts has only voted 68 voters," Hall County Elections Director Charlotte Sosebee-Hunter said at mid-afternoon. "I have also found that many have had at least a dozen or so. It seems very slow. "

Turnout was described in much the same way in Lula where a liquor referendum is also on the ballot. But, in Dahlonega, where a special city council election is being held, it was "pretty steady" all morning.

Earlier in the day, at the Georgia Mountains Center, Gainesville city officials, attending a city council meeting, and poll workers at the mountains center polling place expressed concern over the low number of voters who were showing up for the SPLOST referendum.

Pat Rail is manager of Gainesville IV at the mountains center, where 1,692 people are eligible to vote. By 10:00 Tuesday morning, only 21 had voted.

Rail theorized that the convenience of advance voting may be the reason for the low turnout coupled with the construction of the new mountains center parking deck. Still, Rail and her poll workers continued hoping for a better turnout by 7:00 when the polls close.

So did Mayor Myrtle Figueras, who reminded voters that if they donâ