They Did It. 8600 Petitions Turned In By Deadline
Before I left for vacation, I did not have much hope for the ballot initiative that would give Gainesville voters the chance to reject the gender identity clause in its civil rights ordinance. And when I got home and saw that the corner of 13th Street and 16th Ave was pretty much owned by the signature gatherers, I was still skeptical. But I was wrong. The group, Citizens for Good Public Policy, had kicked on the after-burners when things looked darkest, and got the signatures they needed plus about 3,000 more. They now await verification by the Supervisor of Elections Office. This can take up to 45 days.
Presuming that there is not a failure rate of over 35% (signatures thrown out because the person does not live in the city limits, or otherwise does not match the official voter registration information), this spells doom for the ordinance, that the city commission passed in January, over the howls of protest of many irate citizens and business owners. And that’s not all. If it turns out that 6 or 7 thousand citizens who cared enough to sign the petitions also show up at the polls, they will constitute a new majority in what is usually a forgotten March election. And if these same people get in the habit of voting in the Forgotten Election, it could mean a sea change in Gainesville City government. But that will only happen if several of them decide to actually run for the city commission and take a turn at governing, which takes a much bigger commitment than what happened this week.
