Approximately one month after first introducing legislation to codify the process for verifying and approving referendums and ballot initiatives in Atlanta, city council members voted to pass the ordinance.
Passage of the legislation comes after “hundreds of volunteers organized thousands of registered Atlanta voters in a historic petitioning campaign compelling the Atlanta City Council to submit to qualified voters of Atlanta, at the next regularly scheduled election, the repeal of the ordinance authorizing the ground lease of land in the South River Forest of DeKalb County to the Atlanta Police Foundation for approval or rejection through voting,” according to the ordinance.
The ordinance was first introduced by Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari, who has voiced opposition to the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which is currently under construction in DeKalb County. Bakhtiari ultimately voted against the ordinance after revisions were made to include signature matching.
According to reporting from nonprofit publication Capital B, “a visibly frustrated Bahktiari emphasized that signature verification can pose problems for Atlanta residents, including the elderly and the physically disabled, before voting against her own legislation. ‘I have tried all that I can,’ she said before the vote.”
“The new law gives the municipal clerk’s office five days to count ballot petition signatures after they’ve been submitted,” continued Chauncey Alcorn with Capital B. “The clerk’s office then has a 50-day deadline to verify that the submitted signatures match the ones included in each signatories’ state voter registration file.”
Members of Cop City Vote coalition, who helped gather the signatures on the petition campaign, released statements condemning the ordinance immediately after the vote.
“Signature match, which has been rightly condemned as a discriminatory voter suppression tactic by Democrats and voting rights experts alike, has…
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