They Stole Our Vote. Make Them Pay!
On November 6, nearly 60% of Platte County’s voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax to provide our most troubled kids with mental health services. Just five weeks later, the three- person Platte County Commission board stunned the community by refusing to implement the levy.
In other words, we have been disenfranchised by our own county representatives.
To fight this injustice, the Platte County 4 Kids Coalition has started a GoFundMe project to raise the $75,000-$100,000 in legal fees needed to overturn the Commission’s ruling. This is the same group that spent thousands of dollars to force the unwilling commissioners to place the measure on the ballot in the first place.
Why did they steal our vote? Commissioner Joe Vanover rather cluelessly suggested that
But the all-Republican Commission is not worried. After all, the money to defend their actions in court isn’t coming out of their pockets. Instead, we citizens are footing the bill to silence our own voices!
kids should be depending on their parents’ private insurance for mental health care. Some say they did it because Presiding Commissioner Scott Fricker’s feelings were still hurt that voters did not approve his expensive and unnecessary jail tax proposal. When a large crowd turned up to oppose the Commission’s actions, Fricker tried to explain himself by saying, “I represent all 112,000 people in this county, not just the 30% who voted for this.”
That’s not how elections work, Scott. The vote in favor of the Children’s Services Fund was 32,006 in favor to 24,685 against. Majority rules. And by the way, Fricker received only 22,308 votes in his 2022 election – almost 10,000 votes fewer than the far more popular Children’s Services Fund.
We Platte County Democrats believe Scott Fricker is woefully out of touch with the needs of Platte Countians. And we’re gearing up now to defeat him in the 2026 election.
Over the next couple of years, we’ll be sending regular emails to keep you posted on Platte County issues and actions you can take. Our hope is to build and strengthen our Democratic community in order to win local elections in 2026 and beyond.
Would you please help us reach more Platte County voters? Encourage democracy-loving friends and family to subscribe to our newsletter at https://plattedems.org/newsletter-form/.
Thank you so much for helping with this. Every action, no matter how small, counts toward turning Platte County blue!
