HERMANN — Gasconade County's chief elections official says voter turnout in the Nov. 3 General Election might approach 75 percent of registered voters – but it likely won’t be evident at the polling places.

Thanks to what appears to be a heavy request for absentee ballots — a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic — County Clerk Lesa Lietzow said voter traffic at the polling places likely will be lighter than her office first expected. On Tuesday, Sept. 22, the first-day absentee ballots could be put in the mail, the County Clerk’s Office mailed out 210 absentee ballots in response to requests. A lot of residents took the time to come by the office to request a ballot be mailed to them, she said.

“The foot traffic, to me, is amazing,” Lietzow told the County Commission at last Thursday’s session at the courthouse in Hermann.

Her efforts to recruit a few more election judges for the General Election will begin in earnest in the coming days. Her office plans to have three Republican and three Democrat judges — instead of the usual two of each party — at a few precincts expected to see an unusually heavy turnout. The extra judges will be needed not only to help relieve the four others during the regular voting process, but also to ensure steps are taken to regularly disinfect the polling place.

During the August Primary Election, a lull in voters in the precinct meant one of the four election judges would grab a bottle of disinfectant and towels and wipe down voting booths, chairs and tables. A heavy turnout at the polling places might also require election judges to remind voters of the need to observe the 6-foot social distancing protocol.

Lietzow also said that she’s confident a final unofficial vote count for this county will be available fairly quickly, despite some concerns voiced nationally that an outcome won’t be known for some time after election day. With polls closing at 7 p.m., a final unofficial result is expected to be available no later than 10 p.m. For some elections, a final tally is available much earlier. However, final statewide numbers might not be available by the end of the night, she said.

Community service

In other matters at last week’s Commission session, county administrators said they will continue to work with municipalities in having community service workers fulfill their sentences in the cities in which they committed an offense. Presiding Commissioner Larry Miskel, R-Hermann, said he had talked with Hermann City Administrator Mark Wallace in recent days regarding the community service workers. He said Wallace told him he would talk with the city’s liability insurer about having the workers perform their service inside the city.

Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, said he has not been able to talk with Owensville officials because City Hall has been closed in recent days because of the coronavirus.

At the previous Commission meeting, county administrators expressed concern that the county’s municipalities were balking at having community service workers in their cities because of liability concerns. That is, now that offenders are being given community service sentences in Associate Circuit Court rather than a municipal court. Commissioners having to deal with a growing number of community service workers is yet another irritation of the state law allowing cities to transfer their ordinance violation cases to the county’s Associate Circuit Court.

CARES Act funds approved for R-2 School District

The Commission also signed off on a Meramec Regional Planning Commission recommendation to approve $70,715 in CARES Act money to the Gasconade County R-2 School District. The planning agency is administering Gasconade County's $1.725-million allotment of the $2.2 trillion approved by Congress earlier this year to reimburse local governments for their expenses in battling the coronavirus.

As of the last report from County Treasurer Mike Feagan, a little more than $300,000 of the $1.725 million had been paid out as reimbursement to various local government agencies and non-profit organizations to cover costs associated with the virus.

Also, several businesses have applied for grants written out of a portion of the county’s CARES Act money set aside to help small businesses recoup some of the money they’ve lost because of the virus.

Use Tax considerations

The Commission also repeated the need to consider seeking another vote on a use tax. A use tax is a sales tax applied to purchases made online or from out-of-state retailers that aren’t subject to the local sales tax. Commissioners are looking at next April’s election as possibly the time to yet again ask the voters to approve the tax. Voters have rejected a use tax six times in the past decade. In the vote taken in April of 2014, the use tax came within 35 votes of passing, Lietzow noted. That was the closest the ballot issue came to being approved in any of its six times on the ballot.

The main concern among administrators is that a county use tax issue not compete with other tax issues that might be on an April ballot. They said they would need to talk with other tax-supported entities that might be considering a tax vote next April.

Despite the possibility of being on the ballot with another tax issue, Lairmore remains convinced of the need for a use tax.

“It affects a lot of people,” he said, referring to the absence of sales tax on the increasing number of online purchases — an increase that has been fueled by the coronavirus.