Unofficial Results: SPLOST approved by 79 votes

Cobb County’s SPLOST election captured some March Madness on Tuesday, and the decision on the 1 percent sales tax could be going into overtime.

With all 153 precincts reporting and all absentee and early ballots counted by 10:30 p.m., the referendum unofficially passed by 79 votes out of the 42,971 cast.

That margin of 0.18 percent was even closer than the September 2005 election that enacted the current Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax by a comparatively easy 114 votes.

There’s no reason to think that the fierce battle waged between advocates and opponents of the SPLOST extension has come to an end.

As questions arose through the night about recounts of the paper absentee ballots and recanvasses of the electronic votes, Cobb County officials didn’t have the answers.

The “current goal is getting an accurate count of the votes cast,” county spokesman Robert Quigley said in an e-mail at 9:50 p.m. “We will focus on the next steps once we complete the task at hand.”

Quigley said the elections board’s attorney should be able to provide answers Wednesday about what happens next.

The same night that the NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament began with an overtime game in Dayton (UNC-Asheville beat Arkansas-Little Rock 81-77), overtime seemed a fitting result in Cobb. The vote lead went back and forth between approval and rejection from the time the first numbers came out around 7:30 until the final numbers arrived three hours later.

While the sales tax held the lead most of the night, the “no” side moved ahead by 56 votes in the second-to-last release of vote totals from the Cobb County Board of Elections & Registration. But the final six precincts reversed the result and pushed the SPLOST to the unofficial victory.

That excitement came after a day featuring light turnout across Cobb. Less than 11 percent of the active registered electorate of 392,589 voted in an election with only one issue: whether to extend the SPLOST for four more years.

That penny-per-dollar tax would raise a projected $492 million from Jan. 1, 2012, to Dec. 31, 2015, to pay for roads, parks, public safety improvements and other projects.  An estimated $34 million of the funding, if approved by voters, would be spent on projects in Smyrna-Vinings.  The current SPLOST is set to expire at the end of this year. 

Smyrna-Vinings Patch will continue to provide updates on Wednesday, including Smyrna-Vinings precinct-by-precinct results, as well as further details on a possible recount.

Cobb County Election Unofficial Results

Unofficial results from the Cobb County Board of Elections & Registration as of 10:31 p.m.

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The Tuesday was wet and raw for much of the morning and afternoon and reports from local polling places didn’t exactly indicte that Smyrna-Vinings residents were making made dashes to cast their votes.

By mid-afternoon, Cobb County Board of Elections & Registration Director Janine Eveler surmised that the morning's rain might have scared off a few voters in the latest SPLOST referendum.

"Things are a little slow, but they’re going well," she said.

At the precinct off Paces Ferry Road, Larry Lynch said he voted for the SPLOST.

“I’m a big proponent of SPLOST because we need it for the improvement of our roads,’’ said Lynch, a Smyrna resident for more than half a century.

Having just voted at the precinct off Church Street, Gloria Everham indicated she was against the SPLOST.

“I don’t like being taxed and taxed and I’m not sure our government officials are spending all this money in the most prudent manner,’’ she said. “Somebody needs to watch how each and every penny is spent.’’

Nowadays, one needs to keep on close eye on every dollar, and even every campaign sign according to a story today by South Cobb Patch. It would appear the bright red “Ax the Tax’’ signs seen throughout the county have been rapidly disappearing from yards.

Said Brett of Cobb County Taxpayers Association, “Since we’ve seen numerous signs disappear for one reason or another, our plan (Tuesday) is to take all of the signs we have in our yards and on our properties and place them near our polling places.”

Cobb County has a SPLOST in place, and it is set to expire Dec. 31. If the new SPLOST is officially approved, it would kick in immediately after that expiration, keeping the sales tax at 6 percent. The SPLOST would then continue until Dec. 31, 2015.

Much debate has swirled across the county, especially since the Cobb County Board of Commissioners  to send the SPLOST referendum voters.

Supporters, including Citizen's for Cobb's Future, argue that 30 percent of SPLOST money will come from non-county residents. They also say that the process is transparent, as the projects are made public prior to the vote.

The other side includes the Cobb County Taxpayers Association, the Georgia Tea Party, the Cobb Libertarian Party and Americans for Prosperity.

They argue that in a down economy, taxes should be as low as possible. They also say that the county should use the dollars it already has coming in more effectively, and that some of the SPLOST projects belong on a "wish list" instead of being funded by the tax.

The two sides Feb. 23. Since then, opponents have held two rallies at Marietta Square: and another on Sunday. 

After Sunday's SPLOST protest, advocates took their turn in the square for a Family Fun Day.

Early voting , which represents about 1.7 percent of Cobb’s 392,589 active registered voters.

- Patch editor Michael Stone contributed to this story.