With already strong numbers for early voting, the Tangipahoa Parish Oct. 19 election will elect a 21st Judicial District Family Court Judge, approve or reject a proposed prison sales tax and renew or deny a public library millage.
According to Tangipahoa Parish Registrar of Voters John Russell, 637 early votes have been cast. This though, is only a total of votes between Oct. 6 and 7. Approximately 388 votes were cast in person, according to Russell, and 249 were sent by mail.
Democratic candidates Vanessa Williams, a prosecutor, and Lila Hogan, an attorney, join conservative Republican candidate Jeff Oglesbee, an attorney, in the running for Family Court Judge, a new court encompassing Tangipahoa, Livingston and St. Helena Parish modeled after St. Tammany Parish’s Family Court.
Hogan said she is a moderate, pro-life democrat and family law specialist who is “running to stop the destruction in our courtrooms.” Oglesbee is from Livingston Parish and is a devout-Catholic.
The candidate elected to the position will preside exclusively over family court matters, such as divorces, child custody and alimony.
Also up to voters, the adoption for the Tangipahoa Parish Prison to expand through a new half-cent sales tax, which Sheriff Daniel Edwards said is necessary to fund the renovation and enlargement of the parish prison.
According to Edwards, the new jail would be able to house parish and municipal prisoners and that there would be sufficient space based on the anticipated population growth over the next 30 years.
A parish jail fund would be created, if voters approve the sales tax increase, and it will be maintained and administered by the jail, according to Edwards. The city’s existing jail operates on a $6 million budget.
The fund would repay debt, which is essentially the jail construction, fund jail operations and any remaining surplus would be split between Tangipahoa Parish government and the sheriff’s office.
The jail was built in 1982 and has not had any additions made to it since 1990. There are approximately 526 beds in the prison, though the parish population has jumped from 85,754 in 1990 to 122,571 in 2013, an increase of 51.9 percent.
If voters adopt the new sales tax, there will be an increase in beds, totaling 330, and making for a total of 856 beds or net increase of 200 percent in the jail. There would also be additional space for training, education and rehabilitation, designed to reduce the number of repeat offenders.
Edwards said that in no case would the total number of non-parish prisoners be more than 25 percent of the total number of prisoners.
Furthermore, the Tangipahoa Parish Library millage, pushed by Library System Director Barry Bradford, is simply a renewal and is not a new millage.  
According to Bradford, the library runs off of a $3 million budget deriving from two property taxes, a 2.81 millage and a 3.0 millage. Each millage is active for a 10-year period.
While 3.0 mills will be up for renewal in five years, 2.81 mills must be renewed by the city in order to rake in the $3 million for the library. Without the 2.81 mills, according to Bradford, the library would lose roughly $1.4 million from its budget.
More than 74,500 people are registered to vote in the parish-wide election, according to Russell. This includes 33,701 democrats and 20,930 republicans, with 19,986 “other” party affiliated voters.
Russell told the Hammond Daily Star that voter turnout is still largely unknown for the Oct. 19 Election Day.