With high interest in measures to bring a second high school to Jefferson City, voter turnout in Tuesday's municipal elections was higher than usual - and even higher than Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer predicted.
The 32.2 percent turnout topped Korsmeyer's projected 25 percent; municipal elections typically draw about 10 percent of registered voters.
"I would rather have a better turnout than fall short," Korsmeyer said. "We had no problems, and many times we had to run out more ballots to polling places."
Propositions J and C - the ballot issues to fund Jefferson City Public Schools' two high school plan and increased operating levy - were the big-ticket items drawing many voters to the polls, as well as the six-candidate race to fill three seats on the JCPS school board.
Outside St. Joseph Cathedral, polling place for the 3rd Ward's 1st Precinct, Carlene Diekroeger said it was a "very easy" decision to make.
"We've needed this high school situation taken care of for years and years," she explained. "I just hope that people really realize how important this is for our community."
She said choosing among six school board candidates for three seats was harder to decide. "I knew a couple of them - that made it a little easier," she said.
Molly White agreed.
"I really think I heard a lot of very similar sentiments from the candidates," White said. "I don't have any strong disagreements with hardly any of them that I heard - so I felt like I had a lot of good choices. Sometimes that makes it harder."
The Jefferson City Public Schools finance issues also drew her to the polls.
"I wanted to vote in support of the school bonds and proposition so that we can build a second high school that I think we need," White said.
Several voters who supported Propositions J and C said they have seen the need firsthand as students.
"We are a growing community, and it was crowded when I went to school there," said Keyon Terrill, who voted at Capital City Christian Church, polling location for the 2nd Ward's 3rd Precinct. Terrill has lived in the Jefferson City community since she was 8 years old and believes a second high school is overdue.
Jeff Bax and his daughter, Abi Bax, both JCPS alumni, came out to support the school issues. Abi graduated in 2013.
Jeff said he has a friend running for the 1st Ward City Council seat, but the school issues brought him out, too. "It needs to be done," he said.
Jon Lindquist, voting at Capital West Christian Church's event center, the polling place for the 4th Ward's 2nd Precinct, said he voted "yes" on both school propositions. He graduated from Jefferson City High School in 2001, and he said he remembers having to sit on the floor just to eat lunch. He has children in the district now.
At Faith Lutheran Church, polling place for the 2nd Ward 2nd Precinct, Cori Zenishek also said the bond issue and tax proposal were easy decisions to make.
"I have a 3-year-old of my own, and I see this as being that's going to affect his future," she explained.
While the school issues motivated many voters to head to the polls, not all came out in support.
Outside County Employees Retirement Fund, polling place for the 1st Ward's 2nd Precinct, Earnette Smith said he's opposed to the two high school plan because the "powers that be" have been promising for 15 years to do something about East Elementary School, but the current plan puts those students "on the back burner for another five years."
Smith is a sales professional at Jefferson City Honda and an associate minister at Second Baptist Church.
Smith wants the students on the east side to be taken care of first, before the high schools. He also didn't think the school district's plan to relocate some students to alleviate overcrowding was a good idea because, he said, a lot of those students don't have reliable access to transportation.
"We're making it about us as opposed to the children," Smith said.
Andy Schmidt said his concern about the school bond issue was the cost in increased taxes for local people, particularly those on fixed incomes like elderly folks and renters.
"All that's transferred to those who can least afford it," he said.
He felt the costs were an "unnecessary burden" on taxpayers that could drive people away from Jefferson City.
In the 4th Ward's 2nd Precinct, Michael Suresh said he felt the J Plus C campaign's scope was too grand in terms of the proposed building projects. "We don't need any mausoleum or world-class building," he said.