Atlanta’s city government will scan and release copies of petitions against a proposed police and firefighter training center, even though the city still isn’t verifying voter signatures or otherwise moving forward with the citywide referendum sought by “Stop Cop City” activists.
The Atlanta City Council voted 15-0 on Monday to direct the city clerk to scan petitions that referendum proponents say contain 116,000 signatures from voters, which would be twice the number required to call the vote under state law.
Opponents of the $90 million, 85-acre (34-hectare) project hope that releasing the signatures and showing they are valid will build political pressure on the city to stop fighting the referendum — or encourage City Council members to bypass the signature process and to place the referendum on the ballot anyway. City lawyers have argued the council doesn’t have the power to set a referendum without a valid petition.
Mayor Andre Dickens and city officials have argued that the petition drive can’t legally cancel a lease that the city signed with the private Atlanta Police Foundation to build and run the complex, calling the challenge “futile” and “invalid.”
Legal limbo only intensified last week. Organizers who delivered boxes of signed petitions on Sept. 11 were told that the city clerk was legally barred from verifying the signatures. Officials said organizers had missed an Aug. 21 deadline. But previously, a federal judge extended that deadline until September. However, an appellate court on Sept. 1 paused enforcement of that order, raising questions about the extension.
Dickens on Monday said the publication of the signatures will back up his previously expressed desire to know how many residents really support the vote.
“As I have stated before, I support allowing the process to run its course in an open and transparent manner,” the mayor said in a statement. “Like many, I want to know exactly what is in those boxes…
Read the full article here
