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As of the Early Voting deadline Friday, 1,327 in-person ballots have been casted for Tuesday’s E-SPLOST election. 

According to Elections Supervisor Andrew Harper, 113 absentee ballots had been turned in but there were a few left to count.  

Harper noted that the in-person votes were low but that was to be expected for a special election. E-SPLOST stands for Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax and if approved would be the continuation of a one-cent sales tax on all retail purchases in Troup County. 

In the past, E-SPLOST has been used to fund major projects for TCSS, including athletic facilities at LaGrange High School and Troup High School and the construction of Clearview Elementary School. It’s also been used for technology upgrades, such as purchasing 9,000 Chromebooks, and security upgrades. E-SPLOST cannot legally be used to pay for salary costs.

TCSS is projecting that it will collect $72,159,375 in E-SPLOST VI, plus projects to receive roughly $8 million in capital outlay funding, which is allocated by the state for use in specific projects that meet the state’s criteria. 

TCSS has released $81,802,982 worth of proposed projects for ESPLOST VI.

All of the projects can be viewed on the Troup.org website. 

They include a new Rosemont Elementary School and athletic facility upgrades at Callaway High School. 

“I can’t really tell what to expect for Tuesday’s election,” Harper said. 

“We don’t really know if we will have a spike in voters or not. Typically, on special elections it is never a large turnout.” 

Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning for the special election and close at 7 p.m. 

Voters must be registered 30 days prior to any election to cast their ballot. 

To find your polling place, visit www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do.