The passage of the tax came after a carefully choreographed "stealth" campaign that sought to overcome anti-tax tendencies in a politically conservative county. On an election day with only one item on the ballot, only about 12 percent of the registered voters went to the polls — a fraction of what can be expected for a general election but just the kind of turnout supporters had counted on.....
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...Towery's company, Insider Advantage, identified 20,000 likely supporters among women, senior citizens and Democrats. The campaign then sent brochures, made telephone calls and ferried them to the polls if necessary.
"If the campaign had been run in traditional manner, with TV commercials, radio ads and mass mailings, this thing would have lost 55 [percent] to 45," Towery said. "It was a stealth campaign."
County officials assembled an impressive list of political leaders and businessmen to beat the drums in support of the tax increase. They raised and spent $300,000.
Tuesday's vote was close in all areas of the county. The strongest support was in Democratic precincts and the high-growth areas of west and north Cobb.
And it would have lost except for another campaign maneuver: getting targeted voters to the polls early.
Early and absentee voters accounted for 10 percent of the total vote and favored the tax increase by 2,621 to 1,499, or 64 percent in favor. On election day itself, the "no" votes outnumbered the "yes" ones by 1,122.
