DeLand, FL - Three weeks of voting later, the county has an answer regarding a proposed sales tax increase.
Near the end of the night (May 21st), the ballots for the mail-in half-cent sales tax referendum vote were counted, leading to a couple of different findings.
First, with over 300,000 registered voters in the county, only 103,674 ballots made it back into the department of elections, with 114 of them being blank.
That means only 28% of the county's voters actually participated in the vote.
But, the biggest part in the countywide election would be the decision on whether or not Volusia would implement a half-cent sales tax. Something that has been in the county's mind for a while.
City and county officials pushed for the ordinance to go through, with the main reason being that revenue generated by the tax would go towards infrastructure projects that they feel were needed around the county.
However, the decision was ultimately in the voters' hands.
And the voters said no.
A look at the numbers shows that just over 55% of voters who completed and mailed-in ballots rejected the proposed sales tax, while 45% approved.
Some county officials have already weighed in on the results of the election, including Councilwoman Heather Post. She wasn't in favor of the vote, saying she didn't support taxing people to "fix a broken system."
Sales Tax special election results are in & it failed. I made it very clear from the beginning that I was not in favor of taxing the citizens to fix a broken system & the rest of the voters of Volusia County have made their voices heard as well. #ListeningToFocusingOnThePeople pic.twitter.com/kVAtocHQSa
— Heather Post (@HeatherPostCom) May 22, 2019
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood echoed the same sentiment, saying that voters had spoken.
Similarly, another sales tax vote also fell through in Osceola County, that one, however, was for a full percent increase, not a half like Volusia.
