Gwinnett County held a special election Tuesday to determine whether to expand MARTA into the county. After all 91,000 votes were cast, the measure failed.
It was the third time Gwinnett had rejected a MARTA expansion, including votes in 1971 and 1990.
The suburb has nearly tripled in population since the last vote into a diverse community that’s urbanizing. Attitudes in the region are changing.
Advance voting demographics and recent polling had predicted the referendum would be unsuccessful.
“I pray to God it fails,” said 76-year-old Jim Wehner, who voted no in Lilburn. “All we’re doing is becoming a money cow for MARTA.”
Reactions on Twitter (which skews younger and does not represent the 91,000 who voted), were overwhelmingly negative.
There were some who supported the election’s outcome.
Some talked about the structural issues around the vote.
See how the county’s votes were split up by neighborhood via this map.
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