Hot Springs Vote Certified

A state judge has certified the results of a bond election in Hot Springs on June 10 despite a suit by four city residents who maintain the election was illegal.

Voters approved a $1.2 million bond issue for heating and cooling repairs at the city’s Mid-America Science Museum. The bonds would be supported by part of the revenues from Hot Springs’s 3% tax hotel tax.

The suit opposing the vote said only one polling place was open, at the Garland County Election Commission office in downtown Hot Springs.

The plaintiffs said voters were not properly notified of the election. The suit also alleges that the use of a single polling site disenfranchised voters who “do not have the economic or physical means to cast their votes at the single designated polling place, which is not a well known location nor easily accessible to these groups of voters.”

Election Commission chairman Charles Tapp said the panel properly notified voters of the election through advertisements in the local newspaper. It is not unusual to open just a few or even only one polling place when a low voter turnout is expected, he said.

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