Today there is a transit referendum in Gwinnett County (Greater Atlanta)

When the compact was developed for the MARTA heavy rail transit system in Greater Atlanta, most suburban counties, including Gwinnett, opted out.  So the rail and bus system mostly serves Fulton and DeKalb Counties, except that in 2014 Clayton County voted to join.

While Clayton County didn't have much of a transit system or service before joining MARTA, Gwinnett Couny has developed its own transit system in the interim, although there is no rail service and limited connections to other counties.

At the time of the vote in 1971, it was pretty typical for suburbs to be against regional transit out of fear of the other, especially center cities and what were perceived as predominately African-American populations.

Frankly, this is still a problem, such as in Suburban Detroit, where elected officials in Macomb and Oakland Counties haven't favored taxes for regional transit ("Hackel on regional transit efforts: Macomb voters "don't want this thing'," Michigan Public Radio)..

Chris Hahn, who confronted an intruder in his home near the Cromwell rail stop. Photograph: JM Giordano for the Guardian.

And even in Anne Arundel County outside of Baltimore, some residents are still agitating for closure of light rail stations which they see associated with crime derived from Baltimore ("Addicts, crooks, thieves’: the campaign to kill Baltimore's light rail," Guardian).

To their credit, local and state officials haven't been supportive. From the article:

The Hahns had moved to the working/middle-class suburb seeking a quiet, safe environment away from the crime and strife of Baltimore, 10 miles away. But, like many in the neighbourhood, they say the city’s woes have seeped into the area via public transport. Specifically, they believe criminals are coming into the suburbs by light rail.

Data does not bear that out, but that hasn’t stopped some residents from campaigning for the service, which started 25 years ago, to be reduced. The Hahns have just returned from a protest demanding the closure of a light rail stop around the corner from their home – a stop activists have linked to an increase in crime in the area.

(When I worked in Baltimore County, that's when I first heard the term "Loot Rail," where it was said that people from Baltimore would take the light rail to Lutherville to steal from the big box stores near by.)

Transit funding in Georgia has been problematic.  The state has a disproportionate role, and state-initiated votes in the past were put forward on too accelerated of a time frame to be able to succeed ("Failure of the transit-roads sales tax measure in Metro Atlanta") as was the case in 2012

Now, counties have the ability to set votes on a longer time frame.  And over the last two directors of the MARTA system, elected officials have become more comfortable with transit, recognized that transit is important in attracting business ("Atlanta hopes transit expansion could be edge in Amazon HQ2 hunt," Atlanta Journal-Constitution)) and have had their fears assuaged that the "monies will be wasted."

GoGwinnett is a pro-transit advocacy initiative.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has been running a series of articles on the Gwinnett vote for the past few months.  The depth of coverage reiterates the value of local media.

-- Gwinnett MARTA referendum coverage, AJC
-- Pro and con coverage, Gwinnett Forum

By late tonight, we'll know what happens.

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From "Here’s a voice against Gwinnett ever joining up with MARTA," Gwinnett Forum:

The first vote I ever cast was against MARTA. And the last rapid transit vote I cast in 1990 was against MARTA. And the next vote I cast will go against MARTA.

Friends ask, “Why would we want to be like DeKalb and Fulton?” I say we already are, but what they’re really saying is, “We don’t want to be like Atlanta.” How do I know? Well, the second letter in MARTA stands for “Atlanta.” And the last time I looked at a map of Gwinnett, nowhere did I find a city called by that name.

Gwinnett has long resisted any merger, association, or jurisdiction with the big city to our south. Why are we starting now? Our commissioners know MARTA won’t solve our traffic problems. Has it solved DeKalb’s? Or Fulton’s? The answer is no.

Consider this: Gwinnett County has a population of nearly a million strong. Why aren’t we dictating to Atlanta what we want instead of it dictating to us what it thinks we need?

Given the virulence of the automobility lobby, oil and car manufacturing interests and the Sprawl Lobby, it's probably more amazing than we realize when transit referenda do pass.