Tuesday April 23rd, 2024 6:43PM

Hall County Board of Elections to reconvene to discuss ESPLOST ballot placement

By B.J. Williams
The Hall County Board of Elections will revisit its decision to deny a request to place ESPLOST questions for the Hall County School District and the Gainesville City School System on the March 24, 2020 ballot.
 
Board Chairman Tom Smiley told WDUN's Morning Edition Thursday morning that a called meeting is set for Friday at 4 p.m. at the elections office on Browns Bridge Road. 
 
"I'm going to reconvene the board and I'm going to offer a motion to reconsider this matter," Smiley said.
 
On Tuesday, the board decided - in a split vote - to deny the request from both school systems to place the penny sales tax question on the presidential primary ballot, asking instead that the vote be delayed until May or November.
 
"My particular reasoning...I felt like the March 24th date wasn't the best date to allow for greater voter participation," Smiley said. "However, as I've been investigating this and discussing this, that may not be our decision because as a board of elections, we don't interject ourselves into policy matters, only procedural matters."
 
Smiley said the board's intent was never to deny voters a chance to cast ballots on the ESPLOST questions. He said the discussion since Tuesday's vote has been productive.
 
"Everybody's been working together very good. All the bodies that have been dealing with this have been very cordial, congenial, pleasant. We're going to get it worked out and get it resolved, I'm confident, tomorrow," Smiley said. 
 
The Hall County Elections Board office is located at the Hall County Government Center at 2875 Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville. 
  • Associated Categories: Homepage, Local/State News, Politics
  • Associated Tags: ESPLOST, Hall County , Gainesville Police Department , Hall County School District , hall county board of elections, Election 2020
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