Douglas County voters will go to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots on a one-cent special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) to build a new county jail.

Other items on the ballot include a redevelopment powers referendum for both city and county and city council election. Some ballots will also have the State Senate District 35 race to select a candidate to fill the remaining term of Kasim Reed, who resigned to run for mayor of Atlanta.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in all voting precincts. Less than 2 percent of qualified voters cast ballots in early voting which ended Friday.

This will be the third time in the past four years that Douglas County voters have been asked to vote on a jail SPLOST. In the previous elections, the jail was part of a list of proposed projects.

This time, the tax revenue would be used solely to raise $150 million to build the jail. A “yes” vote will also approve a $120 million bond issue, backed by SPLOST revenues, so that work can start immediately on the jail.

If approved, tax collections would begin next April 1. The term of the SPLOST is six years (24 calendar quarters) or until the $150 million is raised, whichever occurs first.

Proponents of the SPLOST point out that the 26-year-old jail is severely overcrowded with four inmates in each six-by-10-foot cell which was originally built for one inmate.

About half the jail space is used for dormitory type housing, with 48 inmates bunking in an open room, similar to military barracks. This presents extra risk for corrections personnel, Sheriff Phil Miller maintains.

Nearly 50 inmates are being transported to Irwin County in south Georgia because of the lack of local jail space. The cost to the county is $45 per day, per inmate, around $65,000 per month.

Opposition has come mainly from the Douglas County Taxpayers Coalition, which has accused the sheriff of using state prisoners to fill up the jail to justify a new jail. The group also questions the imposition of additional sales tax during a depressed economy, charging it will hurt Douglas County retail businesses.