TROY, Ohio — Voters in Miami County have a decision to make in the next week, deciding whether or not to approve a sales tax increase to pay for a new county jail.
News Center 7 spoke to voters and election officials on Monday afternoon about how the proposal on the ballot is impacting turnout.
“I like to get it done early, and that way I don’t have to worry about it on election day,” said Vicki Mullen of Troy.
“This is my first time early voting,” said Amy Cost of Troy. “I didn’t even know how to do it, early voting, but it was easy. I just walked in, filled out the ballot, and I was done.”
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News Center 7 asked voters what issues were most important to them and what brought them to the polls in Troy.
“The jail issue for sure,” Cost said.
“I want to see about the jail and vote on that,” Mullen said.
Every voter in Miami County will see a sales tax increase of a half percent if it is approved, and that extra money will go towards the construction of a new jail.
Currently, the sheriff’s office operates two jail facilities that are located downtown, which opened in the early 1970’s, and the other is on North County Road 25A.
If there are enough “yes” votes on the tax increase, citizens would see renovations to the County Road 25A facility and connect it to a brand new jail that would be built on that site.
The current jail that is downtown would close.
Miami County Board of Elections officials told News Center 7 that they expect the countywide sales tax issue to lead to higher-than-normal turnouts for a gubernatorial primary.
“I think it’s important for everybody to vote, to cast their feelings and how they feel about what’s going on in their county,” Mullen said.
There are expanded early in-person voting hours at your county Board of Elections Office between now and Sunday, and that is for the last week leading up to Election Day.
Here is Ohio’s full early in-person voting schedule.
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