Cobb County voters can cast in-person ballots as soon as Tuesday as early voting starts for the 2021 elections, which culminate on Nov. 2.
Advance voting will conclude on Oct. 29 and will include two Saturdays, Oct. 16 and 23.
The only advance voting location in the East Cobb area is The Art Place (3330 Sandy Plains Road); for more on locations, dates and times, click here.
While citizens in Cobb’s six cities will be voting in municipal elections, voters across the county will be asked if they want to extend the one-percent sales tax to fund construction, maintenance and technology projects for the Cobb County School District.
It’s called Cobb Education SPLOST VI, and it would raise $894 million from 2024-29 (our summary story from May; full project notebook here).
Among the major projects on the project list approved by the Cobb Board of Education is a reconstruction of the main Sprayberry High School classroom building. Also slated for new classroom additions are Kincaid, Mt. Bethel, Murdock, Sope Creek and Tritt elementary schools in East Cobb.
Sprayberry rebuild supporters have been publicly advocating for several months for extending the SPLOST, noting that the 50-year-old building at Sandy Plains Road and Piedmont Road is wearing down while other high schools in the East Cobb area have had major renovations and rebuilds (Walton, Wheeler).
They’re holding an Oct. 19 open house to provide more information, where details of the new Sprayberry gymnasium and CTAE facility also will be available.
“We’re excited about being on [the ballot],” Sprayberry parent Shane Spink said.
In recent weeks some citizens have expressed concerns about renewing the SPLOST amid turbulence on the Cobb Board of Education. A reader wrote on the East Cobb News Facebook page this week saying that’s why she’s voting against a SPLOST for the first time.
“I have little confidence in some of the current Cobb County School District Board members and its Superintendent,” Melissa O’Brien wrote. “In a year and a half full of COVID-related chaos, one would expect the 25th largest school district in the country to step up to the challenge.”
She said she thinks the Cobb school district hasn’t wisely spent federal CARES Act funding and implemented stronger COVID-19 safety protocols, and was upset at board member David Banks sending an e-mail from his official address discouraging the vaccines.
Spink said he understands the concerns but said the SPLOST isn’t a partisan issue and has broad countywide impact.
“Every school benefits from this,” he said. “We shouldn’t be cutting off our noses to spite our faces. This is about our kids, the teachers and our community.”
As we noted previously, you can request an absentee ballot just as you did last year; the deadline for that is Oct. 22; absentee ballots will start going out in the mail on Monday for those who’ve already signed up.
Cobb Elections must receive your absentee ballot by 7 p.m. on Nov. 2, election day, either by mail or at an early voting location during voting hours. There won’t be the outdoor dropboxes that were available in 2020.
Voters who elect to go to the polls on Nov. 2 will cast ballots at their normal precincts between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
For questions and for more information, visit cobbcounty.org/elections email info@cobbelections.org,
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As a recently retired Georgia State University Assistant Professor , I will be voting YES for the Cobb Ed SPLOST. Many educational structures in Cobb are over 40 years old. This 1% sales tax is used for capital improvements, such as infrastructure, repairs, & maintenance. It will benefit our local schools for another 5 years. Let us continue to be responsible citizens and vote to maintain educational environments that enhance the welfare of our children.
Only a fool votes to raise their own taxes. The government is going to raise them anyway, there’s no need for us taxpayers to further shoot ourselves in the foot.
We are taxed enough. Vote NO!
Given the declining enrollment in Cobb County schools, I question the need for new classroom additions in the elementary schools.
We’re having a demographic moment, people just aren’t having kids as much and some are pulling their kids due to concerns about the schools ranging from COVID to poor leadership in the dysfunctional board.
I say vote NO.