Minnehaha County Auditor’s office fearless leader, “Not sure if they have enough signatures. They won’t let me look in their minivan.”
UPDATED: BTW, my apologies to Litz. He apparently is telling the truth in this matter, according to the Argus.
I will admit, I am surprised the opt-out signature gatherers were able to get 5,400 signatures. I do know there was 35+ volunteers out there getting them. The problem is the short time they had to get them (20 days). As I told one of the volunteers the other day, “This is done on purpose to make it very, very, difficult for citizens to overturn legislation.”
You should always try to get at least 20% over your needed amount for a buffer. But like I said, time constraints are a bitch.
Shortly before a 5 p.m. deadline today, activists say they turned in about 5,400 signatures, more than the 5,334 they need.
Minnehaha County Auditor Bob Litz didn’t count or verify the referral petitions today. That process will begin on Thursday. But his office did a rough, unofficial count and say the opponents might be thousands of signatures short.
C’mon Bob! You determined from a ‘rough count’ they were thousands short? I suggest that if Bob ‘Can’t get enough ballots to the precincts’ Litz deems them invalid, that the group ask for an independent audit agreed upon by both parties. How can you trust a county auditor that 1) collects his paycheck from the very county that is asking for a tax increase and 2) chased the petition gatherers out of the Republican booth at the SE fair? it is pretty damn obvious he has a bias in this matter, and his hands should be kept off of the petitions. I would also suggest the group have a representative sitting right next to the auditor reviewing the signatures. Remember this same office can’t even distribute ballots correctly, blaming it on a mini-van taking the ballots hostage. My confidence in the current auditor’s office is at a all time low, and his current support system, SOS Jason Gant, doesn’t know petition laws from a freaking hole in the ground. I guess he is too busy tracking people who are visiting his website.
Will the audit of these signatures be fair? I guess we will have to wait and see. I’m not holding my breath.
They got 1% more signatures than they needed? They’re hosed.
I would be curious to hear whether their signature collection rate was slower after they got kicked out of the fair and had to work only at the gates.
Cory – I would agree, they probably don’t have enough valid signatures, but I still don’t trust Bob farther then I can push a minivan with my big toe.
Besides the fair incident, they did get a late start, which did not help.
I still think the 20 day time limit is a freaking joke.
Yeah, there’s no doubt that they didn’t get the necessary number of signatures…but for Litz to say they’re thousands short is ridiculous.
Exactly, notice the story was posted on the AL website at 5:02 PM yesterday. I would assume that the signatures did not come in until late yesterday afternoon. How could he make such a statement?
From his vast knowledge of election law and rules pulled out of his a*s he can deem all is right with his calculations.
There were 402 raw signatures turned in yesterday and none came in the mail today.
Seems like the AL misquoted them or they flat out lied. But that is a pretty big lie.
There still could be some in the mail Friday…
Well I hope so, or this group is gonna look pretty silly.
Wow, just give up if you have less than 10%.
Does Mr. Barth mean only 400+ signatures total were turned in? He needs to do a “walking in the woods” video to explain the opt out.
If they only got 400 signatures, mr. Barth doesn’t need to make any videos.
Oh Jeff I wouldn’t comment on this until the official totals come in. Word on the street is they have an attorney onboard and are going for blood. Especially Booby’s
I guess we will see what comes in the mail on Friday.
Still don’t trust Slobby Bobby.
Looks like a game of he said, she said;
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20120810/UPDATES/120810014/Petitioners-fail-force-vote-Minnehaha-tax-increase?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
When you have 400 signatures to turn in the media is invited to watch. When 5000 are turned in it is done in secret.
Really?
Very strange. I just can’t understand why they lied about it?
BTW, my apologies to Litz. He apparently is telling the truth in this matter, according to the Argus. I just still am puzzled why they the gatherers lied about this? Silly.
Ignorance is not only what you don’t know but what you do know that isn’t so.
I suspect that the Daniel Willard fella was told something by his “leaders”, thought it was true and then told us.
Kool-Aid syndrome.
Well, when you have Shawn Tornow as your legal adviser, you are pretty much doomed. This is the guy who drug out the Dan Daily case for 7 years. Maybe Shawn thought he could drag this out for a few more days, but it looks like their effort is over faster then Shawn can eat 3 pizzas and a root beer float.