Road Impact Fee Vote a Tie

Election Approved Despite Address Discrepancy On Absentee Ballot

Last updated Friday, April 20, 2007 10:32 PM CDT in News

By Dug Begley
The Morning News

    FAYETTEVILLE -- Fayetteville's road impact fee election is a tie -- for now.

    The Washington County Election Commission certified the April 10 election Friday, but a legal quandary remains. An overseas absentee ballot, from Fayetteville resident Michael K. Lee, lists the wrong address on the application for absentee voting.

    "There is a question as to whether that is enough to disqualify," said George Butler, Washington County attorney.

    Lee, stationed with the military in Panama, listed 1630 Timbercrest Ave. as his address on the ballot form and on his voter registration information. On his most recent request for absentee voting, Lee wrote 1632 Timbercrest Ave.

    There is no such address as 1632 Timbercrest Ave., but a home on the street is labeled as 1630 Timbercrest Ave.

    John Logan Burrow, chairman of the election commission, and commission member Pete Morris opted to certify the election and count Lee's vote against the proposed fee. Adding Lee's ballot, the election total stands at 2,015 for the proposed fee and 2,015 against.

    Tim Humphries, general counsel for Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, said last week a ballot question that ties is defeated because it did not receive a majority of the votes cast.

    The road impact fees would have been assessed on new development throughout the city, based on the type of building constructed. Residential homes of any size would have paid a flat fee, and commercial development would have been charged based on every 1,000 square feet of space.

    Pam Jones, chairwoman of Citizens4Fayetteville, said the defeat of the road impact fees will benefit Fayetteville.

    "I'm happy for it," Jones said. "It's the right thing."

    Opponents of the fee argued it would detract from luring new businesses and development to the city. Citizens4Fayetteville ran newspaper and television advertising encouraging voters to defeat the proposal.

    Fayetteville City Council member Lioneld Jordan, who championed the fee as a way to pay for street improvements, said he was sorry to be on the losing side, but encouraged by the support for impact fees.

    "They didn't get any more votes than we did," Jordan said.

    He added critics of the fee far outspent supporters to achieve the same number of votes. Jordan said the vote proved to him that impact fees have the support of city residents, or at least half of them.

    "I'm very, very encouraged about the vote, one way or another," Jordan said.

    He said he will continue to propose impact fees as a way of raising money for Fayetteville services.

    "I'm going to study it real hard and maybe bring them before the council again," Jordan said.

    He said he does not think he'll try again for road impact fees, at least in the near future.

    Jordan also said he does not anticipate challenging the election outcome.

    "I trust and believe in the system we have," Jordan said. "The people have spoken."

    Jones said she does not think anyone will try to take the issue to court.

    "I think that would be grasping at straws," she said.

    If a challenge was to occur, Jones said Citizens4Fayetteville would defend the election result. She said the address discrepancy on Lee's ballot was "probably a typo."

    Burrow and Morris certified the election on the advice of Butler, who instructed them to open the ballot to "see if it changes the outcome of the election."

    It did, Burrow told seven people awaiting the results Friday afternoon. The commission then signed the certification papers, but asked Butler to research the address discrepancy. Burrow said the commission could file an amended certification at a later date.

    Butler said the instructions for opening absentee ballots require the county election commission to "compare" the name and address of the ballot to the absentee voter information.

    "It does not say 'match,' or 'same as,'" Butler said.

    Burrow said after the election commission meeting he would accept the ballot if the determination was his to make.

    "My policy is to work to accept ballots," Burrow said, citing the commission's role in not disenfranchising voters.

    Morris was less enthusiastic.

    "The one thing that troubles me is he signed it under penalty of law with the wrong address," Morris said.

    A former postal service employee, Morris also noted Lee listed the wrong zip code for the address. Lee's address is in 72703, but he wrote 72702 as the address, which is a zip code strictly for post office boxes.

    "I believe in making voting as easy as possible," Morris said. "But voters have to do things right."

    Butler said he will examine whether Arkansas has any court rulings that may shed light on the issue. He said courts in the past have focused on not disenfranchising voters, but the state also has been strict when it comes to documentation.

    The result will stand unless Butler advises the election commission an error was made in accepting the absentee ballot, or a challenge to the result is filed and a court orders the ballot stricken. Butler said any resident who voted in the election can legally challenge the result. The challenger would have to incur any costs associated with the challenge, and would be reimbursed by the county if successful, according to state law.

    Burrow said he is confident the ballot is authentic.

    "The signatures on the ballot and the voter registration are identical," he said.

    At A Glance

    Absentee Ballots

    Arkansas allows for absentee ballots to be accepted in elections provided they are postmarked by the day of the election and arrive no later than 10 days after the election. Washington County's Election Commission was required by law to certify the April 10 Fayettteville road impact fee election Friday, chairman John Logan Burrow said.

    Source: Staff Report

    Reader Comments (9 comment(s))


    The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsibility of their authors. The Morning News does not review comments before their publication, nor do we guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by our comment policy. If you see a comment that violates our policy, please notify the web editor.

    Tax poem wrote on Apr 21, 2007 7:33 AM:

    " Tax his land, tax his wage, tax his bed in which he lays. / Tax his tractor, tax his mule, teach him taxes are the rule. / Tax his cow, tax his goat, tax his pants, tax his coat. / Tax his ties, tax his shirts, tax his work, tax his dirt. / Tax his tobacco, tax his drink, tax him if he tries to think. / Tax his booze, tax his beers, if he cries, tax his tears. / Tax his bills, tax his gas, tax his notes, tax his cash. / Tax him good and let him know, that after taxes, he has no dough. / If he hollers, tax him more; tax him until he's good and sore. / Tax his coffin, tax his grave, tax the sod in which he lays. / Put these words upon his tomb, “Taxes drove me to my doom!” / And when he's gone, we won't relax, we'll still be after the inheritance tax. "

    Special Elections wrote on Apr 21, 2007 8:06 AM:

    " Special Elections are the goverments tool to destroy democracy. Social parasites love these elections because they allow 5-10% of the voters to sway these so called elections. Any person with dignity and honor would not allow these to occur, to bad we dont have any people in State government with these charateristics. Beebe brain is at the top of the list and will show why it is a bad idea to elect lawyers to office. "

    ''The government hoax'' wrote on Apr 21, 2007 11:46 AM:

    " "tax. A forced burden, charge, exaction, imposition or contribution assessed in accordance with some reasonable rule of apportionment by authority of a sovereign state upon the persons or property within its jurisdiction to provide for public revenue for the support of the government, the administration of the law, or the payment of public expenses. 51 AmJ1st Tax § 3." Ballentine’s Law Dictionary, page 1255. "The organized use of threats, coercion, intimidation, and violence to compel the payment for actual or alleged services of arbitrary or excessive charges under the guise of membership dues, protection fees, royalties, or service rates. United States v McGlone (DC Pa) 19 F Supp 285, 286." Ballentine’s Law Dictionary, page 1051. The first is a "kinder, gentler" way of describing the second. Both are accurate descriptions of how men and women pretending to be "government" operate. I like the second one because it’s actually the definition of "racketeer." The government hoax is that "government," a racket, is legitimate and necessary. That’s absurd. Maybe if you believe a service should be provided at the barrel of a gun then yes, you’d think "government" is legitimate and necessary. "

    William Robertson wrote on Apr 21, 2007 11:51 AM:

    " A ballot is the same as any other business paper. You compare items to match exactly. If a check is to be cashed and the numbers in the block do not match the amount written then the check cannot be cashed. This discrepancy noted on this ballot does not allow the ballot to be compared to information that is on record as therefore does not count. No lawyer or court required to interpret the rules. "

    Bottom Line wrote on Apr 21, 2007 12:30 PM:

    " No roads for you!! "

    a new source of taxation wrote on Apr 21, 2007 1:59 PM:

    " "When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before." ~ H.L. Mencken "

    umm wrote on Apr 21, 2007 2:49 PM:

    " whatever happened to secret ballot? "

    Have no rulers wrote on Apr 21, 2007 9:00 PM:

    " Anarchy isn't about having no rules. It is about having no rulers who enforce unwanted rules on you. "

    Secrecy of Ballot wrote on Apr 23, 2007 12:25 PM:

    " If there were more absentee ballots that were to be counted after the election, then I guarantee that the particular details of his ballot would have been kept secret. However, because a single ballot was involved and a single vote made the difference, there is no way to protect the secrecy of the ballot. Those ballots that have discrepancies, or were provisional in some way were noted by the election commissioner and were to be contacted about having their vote count or not. If this absentee ballot had arrived sooner, it could have dealt with during the same proceedings, and no one would have been wise to what the vote was. It is unfortunate that his private vote has been aired to the world. However, any number of things (such as having the correct address, requesting and returning the ballot in the mail quicker) could have helped in protecting that individual vote from being disclosed. "


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