Gwinnett County voters have spoken and the result was a resounding “No” to a proposed expansion of MARTA that would have brought heavy rail and bus routes to Gwinnett County.
With all precincts reporting, voters shot down the MARTA expansion 54 percent to 45 percent. While the vote follows Gwinnett’s previous history of blocking MARTA, voter turnout may have been the key factor in Tuesday’s rejection.
Only 16.9 percent of voters turned out. Just 91,982 out of Gwinnett’s 543,485 registered voters took to the polls for the referendum.
Gwinnett has twice rejected MARTA, once in the 70s and then again in the 90s.
County and state leaders were banking on Gwinnett’s shift to the left in recent elections and the counties growing transportation needs to change the outcome of the expansion plans this time around.
