Briggett Carter was determined to vote Tuesday.

The Madisonville mother of three didn't know how she'd get to her polling place.

She had no car; couldn't drive if she did. No family or friends were available to take her.

She didn't even know where her new polling place was.

But Carter, a 40-year-old stroke victim and mother of Cincinnati Public Schools children, just had to find a way.

"It's important for the kids," she said.

Carter got a free ride from Cincinnatians Active to Support Education (CASE), one of the groups pushing Cincinnati Public Schools'$480-million bond levy.

In unofficial results late Tuesday with all precincts counted, the bond issue passed 52 percent to 48 percent. Total votes cast were 47,266.

Driving voters

Low turnout was a foregone conclusion, but volunteers fought it anyway.

At CASE headquarters, in the old Swifton Commons shopping center, Urban League volunteers ran the phone bank Tuesday morning.

A couple dozen purple and yellow sheets pinned to walls under drivers' names represented voters needing a ride. When voters reached the polls and returned home, their sheets were removed.

But others soon took their place. By the time the polls closed at 7:30 p.m., up to 125 voters had been driven to the polls.

This is the first election in which CASE, the Urban League, the NAACP and area churches joined to transport voters.

It's about time they got that strategy in gear.

The bond levy lost last November by 611 votes, so its supporters were right to take no chances.

"In November, we may have been overconfident," CASE leader Brewster Rhoads said.

Heavy publicity

In the past four weeks CASE sent out 324,000 mailers offering free rides.

CASE also spent $100,000 on radio and TV spots, including on American Idol and Touched by an Angel.

Then there were 28,000 direct phone calls to voters; 7,000 yard signs; 17,000 personal notes by school parents; 30,000 recorded phone messages by Mayor Charlie Luken and radio host Courtis Fuller; and 70,000 door knocks, handshakes and doorknob tags.

There was even a touching "flashlight vigil" downtown Sunday. A hundred grade-school children and adults sang "This Little Light of Mine."

How could anyone vote against putting cute little cherubs into clean, dry, functional classrooms?

Apparently there were plenty last November, enough to derail a predicted 60-percent victory.

The group most responsible for that loss - The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes - was less financially endowed this time.

Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr., R-Anderson Township, said his group lacked big-money backers and got out only 16,000 mailers, mostly to senior citizens and absentee voters.

Carter said she didn't get one of those.

Interestingly, the volunteer who drove Carter to the polls didn't support the bond levy issue.

Charles Houston, a rehabber and landscaper, said he believes more schools can be renovated rather than torn down. CPS plans to build 35 new schools, renovate 31 and close 14.

Houston also predicted that only a few construction companies would benefit, perhaps more than neighborhoods.

Regardless, Houston said, he volunteers to drive voters to the polls because participation is as important as the outcome.

Voters like Carter "need to have some say," he said.

E-mail damos@enquirer.com or phone 768-8395