Troup Elections Superintendent Donald Boyd moved the Gardner Newman polling place from Gardner Newman Middle School to Hoofers Gospel Barn in 2007, but LaGrange City Council wouldn’t go along with the move for municipal elections.
About 450 of the precinct’s 1,500 eligible voters live in the city. Those people will vote at the school in the referendum on granting redevelopment powers to the city government, but they’ll go a couple of miles up the road to Hoofers to vote on the county referendum and everything else, including the races for governor and several other state and federal offices.
The only local contested race is between incumbent Richard English and Richard Kimbrough for the District 5 seat on the County Commission.
The Republican ballot includes a nonbinding straw poll on whether the state Constitution should be amended “to provide that the paramount right to life is vested in each human being from their earliest biological beginning until natural death.”
City Council kept the polling place at the middle school because of its convenience and familiar surroundings, Mayor Jeff Lukken said, and “we always want to do everything we can to encourage the highest number of people to vote.”
City Manager Tom Hall noted that Hoofers isn’t a public building and lies outside the city. If not for the referendum, it wouldn’t be an issue since municipal elections are held in off years when nobody else in the county goes to the polls.
Boyd said he moved the polling place because of traffic congestion and school safety, among other issues. He said there have been four elections at Hoofers and no complaints.
“I told them if we ever have a county and city election at the same time and did not have the same polling locations, it could create a situation where voters would have to go to two polling places to vote and that time has come,” Boyd said.
LaGrange didn’t have municipal elections last year because no candidates had opposition. But if the elections had occurred “it would have thrown up a red flag” and the polling place issue could have been resolved, Boyd said. By the time he spoke with city attorney Jeff Todd in May, it was too late to get the required U.S. Justice Department approval for polling changes.
“We both dropped the ball on that and we’ll try not to let it happen again,” Boyd said.
He said he’ll work with the city on a mutually acceptable location for the Gardner Newman polling place.
Voters in LaGrange and Hogansville will have two referendums Tuesday because they have to decide whether to grant redevelopment powers to both the city and county governments.
Voters in the unincorporated area and West Point will get only the county question. West Point voters approved the city’s referendum last year.
Under the Redevelopment Powers Law, local governments with voter approval can create tax allocation districts as an incentive for retail and housing development that might not otherwise happen.
Eligible projects would pay existing taxes on the property, but could use the additional tax revenue generated by the development to finance a bond issue that would pay for infrastructure and other up-front costs. Once the bond issue is retired after 20 or 30 years, the local governments would get the full tax benefit.
“There’s no tax money in it and if the development fails, there’s no recourse on the taxpayer,” County Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe said Friday. “I’ve studied this in detail and I just can’t find any reason for concern. … It would be very helpful if the voters allow us to use that tool when and if the opportunity arises.”
He said Troup County “desperately needs jobs and we desperately need to keep sales tax dollars in Troup County.”
“I know we lose millions to Newnan, Auburn and north Columbus because we don’t have the shopping amenities,” Wolfe said.
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