A local Missouri election with only one registered voter is an unambiguous example of when voting actually matters.
The city of Columbia, Missouri created a new district with no registered voters to avoid an election on a sales tax. With no voters in the district, the decision would go to property owners “with a financial incentive to see it approved,” according to Reason.
But local officials didn’t carve out the district as planned. They left one registered voter, a student at the University of Missouri, who is averse to approving the sales tax with her vote.
Property owners in the newly created district would be able to levy new taxes and assessments to fund “improvement projects,” according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.
Carrie Gartner, the executive director of the “community improvement district,” the group behind the sales tax, approached the student, Jen Henderson, to encourage Henderson to unregister her vote. That would allow the CID to usher through the tax increase.
Henderson is hesitant to do so, or to vote for the increase, because of the burden that will fall on low-income residents.
The democratic process, despite the best efforts of local businesses and property owners, might prevail.
