Final Vote Ties Election
By:
Updated: April 22, 2007
The complication comes from an absentee ballot sent in by a voter overseas.
The final vote recorded was against the road impact fees, which means that vote ties the election-- with a final count of 2,015 votes on both sides.
But the election commission noticed a small problem with the absentee ballot.
The voter put down the wrong house number and zip code, although the rest of the information was correct.
Election Commission Chairman John Logan Burrow says the law states to compare the documents-- but doesnt say that they have to be identical.
Burrow says they decided the mistake was just a typo and counted the vote...Making it a tie.
"All of the efforts weve made so far to review it from a legal perspective have come up where theres no clear absolute law that prevents us from counting that ballot."
Burrow says all the legal advice hes gotten on this issue has re-affirmed the commissions decision to count the vote.
So what does this mean for the road impact fees?
Since the absentee vote is being counted as of right now, that means the measure did not get a majority vote and will not pass.
And Burrow says he feels this decision will stick.
