The Jefferson County Election Commission has certified the results of the June 13 special election in which voters approved the Go Forward Pine Bluff five-eighths cent sales tax initiative. Official results showed that there were 5,566 ballots cast; of those, 2,114, or 69.09 percent, voted for the sales tax increase, while 1,054, or 30.91 percent, voted against it.
A total of 2,213 votes were cast during the one week of early voting, and another 3,188 votes were cast on election day. There were a total of 165 absentee ballots counted. Notes from the commission meeting showed that the commissioners added seven yes votes and nine no votes, which included both absentee and provisional ballots.
Election Commission secretary Stu Soffer said the commission was compelled to add both the provisional and absentee ballots and classify all of them as absentee to protect the secrecy of three absentee provisional ballots. He said that if they had been listed as added provisional ballots, the names of the voters would have been accessible under the state’s Freedom of Information Act and how they voted could have been determined.
“Since there was no doubt the question passed, we opted to error on the side of privacy and combined them,” Soffer said in an email to The Commercial.
He also said that there is no special certification form for these types of elections, but commissioners are checking to ensure that that is correct. The certified results were signed by Commission Chairman Mike Adam, Soffer and Commissioner Cynthia Sims.