The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Local News

Discussion

August 1, 2011

Clerk: Voting ease aim of use of Joplin mall as polling place

By Susan Redden news@joplinglobe.com

JOPLIN, Mo. — Northpark Mall will be the polling place today for Joplin residents of Jasper County who turn out to vote on a proposal to continue the city’s one-fourth-cent sales tax for parks and stormwater projects.

As for actual voter turnout, Bonnie Earl, Jasper County clerk, said she has no way to know what to expect.

Jasper County voting was moved to the mall in the wake of the May 22 tornado that cut a swath through the center of Joplin, destroying and damaging many buildings, including some used for polling places.

So instead of trying to send voters to unfamiliar voting sites, Earl said her office will set up polling places for all Joplin voting precincts in Jasper County in the hall inside the mall’s main entrance.

Voters in the Newton County portion of Joplin will cast ballots at their normal polling places.

Another Jasper County election will be held in Alba, where residents will decide a proposed $2.5 million revenue bond issue to extend the city’s water and sewer systems. If the measure is approved, costs would be paid by water and sewer revenues. Residents there will vote at Alba City Hall.

Joplin’s issue proposes extending for another 10 years the quarter-cent sales tax that has been in effect for nearly 10 years. If the tax is renewed, the city plans to proceed with almost $31.5 million in additional parks and stormwater projects in the next decade.

Earl said the mall was chosen for voting as a way to address potential confusion for Joplin voters after the tornado. She said she also hopes it will be convenient for voters and will serve to increase turnout.

“This way, people who need to can just drive up under that covered main entrance and let people off,” she said. “It will also be very accessible for people who are in wheelchairs or have trouble getting around.”

Earl said her office has received many change-of-address notifications from residents who have moved since the tornado. Polling will be separated into the city’s normal precincts, and Earl said she expects people who have moved from the tornado zone but have not yet changed their addresses to vote at the site designated for their former precinct.

“We’re going to be very lenient about that; people in Joplin have been through enough,” she said.

Earl said she is uncertain how many voters may turn out for the election, or what impact there might be from the tornado’s aftermath, the relocated polling site or predictions of record-high temperatures. As of late Monday, 226 absentee ballots had been cast in Jasper County on the Joplin question.

“And we had 20 people vote absentee ballots on Saturday; we think those numbers are pretty good for a single issue,” Earl said.

Ten absentee ballots were cast in Newton County, according to Kay Baum, county clerk.





Voting hours



POLLS WILL BE OPEN from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. today at Northpark Mall for Joplin’s Jasper County voters, and for Joplin’s Newton County voters at their regular polling places: Calvary Baptist Church, Park Plaza Christian Church and Fairview Baptist Church.

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