By Antonio D. French
Filed Thursday, December 14, 2006 at 3:39 PM
BREAKING NEWS - READ IT HERE FIRST
The St. Louis Board of Elections has certified the petition which seeks to ask voters to change the charter to require all park sales to be put up for a vote first.
Approximately 21,700 signatures were required on the petition. Sources say the Board has certified 22,035 of the more than 28,000 signatures turned in Friday as valid.
Here's our earlier video report:
UPDATE: The following press release was sent out by the Election Board...
The Board of Election Commissioners for the City of St. Louis has certified the results of an initiative petition filed on December 8 by a group calling itself Citizens to Protect Forest Park to enact a new Article XXVI of the City Charter to require voter approval of land transactions concerning City parks. Because the proposal involves a change to the City Charter, the proponents needed to submit valid signatures of at least 10% of the registered voters in the City of St. Louis as of the last mayoral election or 21,728 signatures. The Board certified 22,035 signatures out of 27,025 signatures checked. Since the petition contained more than enough signatures at that point, the Board did not attempt to verify the remaining 1,543 signatures in order to ensure that the certification could be delivered to the Board of Aldermen today.
Under the City Charter, once an initiative petition is certified and a copy delivered to the Board of Aldermen, that body then has sixty days from the date of its next regular meeting following certification to adopt the proposed ordinance, without amendment. If it fails to do so, the Election Board is then required to submit the proposed ordinance to the voters at the first election at which such submission may lawfully be had, but not less than thirty days after receiving it back from the Board of Aldermen.
By completing its certification today, and submitting the proposed ordinance to the Board of Aldermen prior to its regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow, December 15, the Election Board has guaranteed that the proposal will appear on the April 3, 2007 Municipal General Election ballot. Although Election Board staff had to work overtime to complete the signature verification process in less time than the ten days permitted under the City Charter, having the proposal appear on the April 3, 2007 ballot avoids having the taxpayers incur the cost of the Election Board calling a special election to vote on the issue.
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