Looking deeper into the jail vote

With the canvas of the April 2 election, it's official: 77.4 percent of the 7,252 Reno County residents who voted supported the sales tax increase to pay for a new jail and more.

The jail won in all but one of the county’s 81 voting precincts.  The one exception was immediately south of where the jail will be built at Severance and Blanchard, and the vote there was only 3-0 against the new jail.

Support was widespread but strongest among urban voters who were better off financially.

In the 18 Hutchinson precincts north of 17th Avenue, 14 supported the jail by 80 percent or more.  Three of the other four supported the new jail by 77 to 79 percent. 

Precinct 23, roughly between Plum and Severance and 23rd and 38th, supported the jail by a still convincing 63 percent.

County-wide, 27 of 81 precincts supported the jail proposal by 80 percent or more. Another 33 precincts supported it by 70 to 79 percent, and 17 more supported it by 60 to 69 percent.  That totaled all but four of the 81 precincts.