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Process to verify Stop Cop City petition
For the first time, we are hearing from the committee assigned to verify the petition regarding the proposed public safety training center in Atlanta. It is called Cop City by its critics. Those critics have worked to get enough signatures to add it to the ballot for a public vote.
ATLANTA - The city of Atlanta has brought in a third party to verify a petition to put the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to a vote.
As of Wednesday evening, the petition has not been officially filed.
Atlanta has brought in a third party to verify and review the petition whenever it’s received.
"The number is 58,232, which is 15 percent of registered voters," Forest Webb said.
That’s the number of signatures city of Atlanta leaders say is required to successfully add the vote for Atlanta Public Safety Center to the ballot for a public vote.
"Once we receive the documents, we will go line-by-line and have individuals inspecting the documents as well as raising any concerns they may see," Webb said.
Webb says, as of Wednesday afternoon, the petition has not been submitted, but Atlanta city officials have assembled a third-party team to review the validity of the document once received.
"I have also reviewed about a half a million petition lines across a variety of petitions across local state federal candidate petitions and citizen referendum petitions," Richard Bartolomei said.
"We are going to be very deliberate and shoot for accuracy instead of speed," Chris Sauter said.
Rich Bartolomei and Chris Sauter have decades of experience and have been brought in to be meticulous in reviewing the documents, along with Webb.
"We have 104,000 signatures. We have been out in the community all summer," Britney Whaley said.
Whaley is with Working Families Party, which has worked to collect the signatures needed.
"We intend to go through every single signature and make sure everything is validated internally before we submit," Whaley said.
The petition was expected to be turned in on Monday, but they say they now plan to submit by September 22.
Whaley says they are fighting to have a bigger role in the process and say they still have unanswered questions.
"We don’t know if we can have observers. Our people want to have a role in the process, and we want to use this as an opportunity to be a part of the review process," Whaley said.
The special group assembled will present all evidence to Atlanta City Council and the mayor at the conclusion of the verification process.