On Tuesday, the Dunwoody Community went to the polls to elect the Mayor, three Council members, to renew the HOST & SPLOST funding for sales tax and to decide the fate of the $60 million dollar bond referendum for the City to build parks, paths and have money available for land acquisition for girls softball.
All incumbents were re-elected, SPLOST & HOST passed easily and the park / paths bond failed in ten of the thirteen precincts.
I saw a few conversations regarding low turnout so I compared the latest data against previous Mayoral elections and 2023 looked to have a higher turnout vs the contested Mayoral election in 2019. I'm guessing preliminary / partial election totals were quoted regarding the low turn out as DeKalb County seemed to publish the results slower than in the past, even though they started counting the early voting totals at 3 pm on election day vs waiting for the polls to close.
2 comments:
I believe the one of the primary drivers for the bond failing was the lack of control the citizens had over how the money could be spent.
Is the council looking at plans to provide more accountability on how proceeds would be used in an updated referendum?
Just my 2 cents, the bonds were dedicated to parks and multi-use trails. If a large portion of the Dunwoody population doesn't use those amenities, it will be very hard to gain their support.
The unopposed incumbent mayor was actually opposed by over 5% of voters choosing to write-in a candidate rather than vote for her, which is statistically significant and demonstrates a desire for an opposing candidate. I believe this is notable and leaving it out misrepresents the actual support figures. Great post, otherwise!
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