Voter turnout in St. Joseph is extremely low for Tuesday’s election.

As of 11 a.m. turnout was at 3.1% according to Buchanan County Clerk Mary Baack-Garvey.

Monday Baack-Garvey predicted an overall voter turnout of 10 to 12-percent, a number she said would also be extremely low.

However, getting to that number looks like it could be a challenge with polls closing at 7 p.m.

In St. Joseph there’s only one issue on the ballot, a vote on a use tax for out-of-state purchases.

Wording on the ballot for Tuesday’s election reads as such, “Shall the City of St. Joseph, Missouri, impose a local use tax on out-of-state purchases for a pesriod of 10 years at the same rate as the local sales tax rate, currently Two and Eight Hundred Seventy-Five One Hundredths of One Percent (2.875%), in order to preserve existing general fund revenues and provide revenues for streets maintenance activities and to eliminate an inequity between in-state and out-of state businesses due to a recent Missouri Supreme Court decision, provided that if any local sales tax is reduced or raised by voter approval, the respective local use tax rate shall also be reduced or raised by the same action? A use tax return shall not be required to be filed by persons whose purchases from out-of-state vendors do not in total exceed Two Thousand Dollars ($2,000.00) in any calendar year.”

To read more about the use tax click here.