Despite an organized attempt to defeat the one-cent special local option sales tax for education (ESPLOST), Chattooga County voters spoke overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the sales tax when they went to the polls on Tuesday.

The question appeared on all ballots in the Primary Election.  In the end, voters voted to pass the ESPLOST with 3,966 voting “Yes” and 1,493 voting “No.”

Opponents of the ESPLOST had tried to bill the one-cent sales tax as a “new sales tax”.  Voters who spoke with WZQZ News this week said that they didn’t understand why opponents of the tax would term it a “new tax” when the one-penny tax has been in place for over a decade.  Some voters said that they were undecided on how they would vote until they learned that the signs declaring “Vote No On New Sale Tax” were misleading.

Chattooga County voters have consistently approved the tax by wide margins.