The Voters Registration Office reported this week that three voting precincts, including one in Westchester and one in Pine township, turned in flipped results in last week’s countywide referendum.

All three precincts originally reported voting in favor of creating the Northern Indiana Regional Transportation District, but precinct workers later told election officials the votes were the opposite of what originally had been reported.

Voter Registration Office Republican Director Sundae Kubacki said precincts Westchester 15, Pine 2 and Porter 6 informed the office of the errors. In last week’s unofficial results, Westchester 15 counted 118 yes votes while only 14 voted no, Pine 2 tallied 175 votes in support and 50 against, and Porter 6 counted 67 yes votes and 14 no votes.

With those results flipped correctly, the final unofficial vote stands at 12,537 in opposition to the RTD and 2,840 in support, roughly an 81/19 percent ratio against the proposed RTD.

Only two of the county’s 126 precincts voting in last week’s referendum supported the creation of the RTD, Center Township 26 and 33 in Valparaiso. Another precinct, Center 17, reported even results in their vote, 16-16. Valparaiso is an area that could have been affected largely by the RTD due to the proposed extension of the South Shore trains to the city.

Kubacki said no further errors were found. The final election results will be posted on the county Web site.

The proposed RTD would have created a new regional bus public transportation system in Lake and Porter counties and also overseen and extended the South Shore line with possible spurs into Valparaiso and Lowell. The district also would have held the power to impose a new county income tax of up to .25 percent.

The RTD referendum was mandated by the state in the counties of Lake, Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph. Only Porter and St. Joseph held elections. St. Joseph also voted down the proposal to create the RTD, 19,640 to 1,053.

The Porter County Election Board met today at noon in the Porter County Voter Registration Office to further evaluate the results of last week’s RTD referendum. There will be more information about that meeting in Monday’s edition of the Chesterton Tribune.

Posted 11/13/2009