10-Percent Turnout On Quiet Election Day Here

The State Constitutional Amendment Election took place Tuesday, Nov. 2.

According to the Fayette County Elections Office, 1,751 voters cast ballots in Fayette County, amounting to a 10 percent voter turnout. Of those, 484 were ballots cast during early voting.

“There wasn’t a lot of excitement from voters about any of the topics this time,” said Fayette County Elections Administrator Terri Hefner. “The people who voted were people who vote in every election.”

The most contested vote locally was for Proposition 2, which will give counties the authority to issue bonds or notes to raise funds for transportation and infrastructure in undeveloped areas. It passed with 63 percent of the vote statewide. Fayette County voters, however, rejected it by just one vote. The tally was 867 for and 868 against.

Hefner said the election went very smoothly in Fayette County. The Fayette County Elections Office recently moved out of the courthouse and into the Meadows Building at 275 Ellinger Road in La Grange. Hefner said the new facility offered her staff ample space to process ballots.

“The election judges did an excellent job,” she said. We love our new building. It’s not the courthouse, but having this additional room to process votes was really night. It went incredibly smoothly.”

Hefner said election judges received many questions from voters about the language of the propositions on the ballot.

“The way they are written makes it hard for people to understand what they are voting for,” Hefner said. “We get so many questions, but we can’t answer that for people because we could inadvertently convince them to vote one way or another.”

Hefner encouraged voters in the future to research the propositions thoroughly and determine how they want to vote before arriving at the polls.

The state will hold a special constitutional amendment election in May for an amendment that legislators proposed last month during a special legislative session. The amendment would increase the homestead exemption for school district property taxes from $25,000 to $40,000.

“I have a feeling that one may garner some interest in people.” Hefner said.

That election is set for May 7, 2022.

To see how Fayette County voters compared to statewide results, see Page A6 today.