Organizers of Atlanta training center referendum upset over signatures released online
ATLANTA - More than 116,000 signatures supporting efforts to put the construction of the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center on November's ballot are now public.
The Atlanta city clerk scanned and uploaded the pages of the petition online, but "Stop Cop City" organizers say officials shared too much.
The group is calling the city reckless for the way it released the petition to the public and says they're concerned the personal information could get into the wrong hands or leave signees open to harassment.
"This move is especially egregious given the sustained intimidation campaign against Stop Cop City advocates waged by the State of Georgia, City of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Police Department," the group said in a statement.
Activists delivered boxes of petitions to city hall in September after the group spent months gathering signatures to put the project to a vote.
But shortly after they began hauling the boxes of paperwork to the clerk’s office, Atlanta officials said they were legally barred from beginning the process of verifying the forms, saying organizers had missed an Aug. 21 deadline. The deadline had been previously extended until September by a federal judge, but an appellate court on Sept. 1 paused the enforcement of that order, throwing the effort into legal limbo.
'Stop Cop City' petitions received, but not processed
A new challenge for the so-called "Stop Cop City" movement. The group says it’s collected more than 116,000 signatures for a petition. It aims to get the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center project on the ballot. When they went to City Hall Monday morning to turn them in, they were told the municipal clerk could not start verifying those signatures.
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The city’s move took activists by surprise and further outraged organizers, who have accused officials of trying to illegitimately push through the construction of the project in an urban forest. Environmentalists and anti-police protesters across the country have rallied against the center.
An attorney for the city, however, said officials are merely following the law and awaiting a decision from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over whether the judge’s deadline extension was lawful.
While the petition remains in limbo, the Atlanta City Council unanimously voted on Sept. 11 to give the city clerk's office the green light to scan its more than 25,000 pages. It's the first step in the process to verify all the signatures are from valid registered voters.
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Atlanta police chief weighs in on training center debate
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaurm is speaking out following a recent effort by Atlanta City Council members Keisha Waites and Iliana Bahktiari to introduce legislation that would allow Atlanta residents to vote on whether to build a new public safety training center.
The documents, which are available on the clerk's website, include the signee's names, addresses, and phone numbers with just the date of birth redacted.
Organizers say the clerk's office ignored instructions by the city council to redact phone numbers, signatures, and addresses except for the city and state of the signee.
"This is, at best, an egregious error, and at worst, it is a part of a continued, intentional orchestration of voter intimidation and suppression by this administration," the group said in a statement.
They're now demanding the clerk take down the website with the un-redacted information, recuse themselves from all matters connected to the referendum, and provide outside legal counsel to counter possible political influence by the City of Atlanta's law department.
The group also says the city has never shared a timeline on when it would begin verifying the signatures for the referendum.
The city had previously said it plans to pore over each signature and toss any that do not meet the qualifications unless the resident fixes the issue. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, one of the chief proponents of the training center, has said he didn’t believe the petition drive would be successful "if it’s done honestly."
For a petition to be counted, the signatory must be a City of Atlanta resident who has been registered to vote since the 2021 city election. Forms can also be tossed if the signature does not match what officials have on file, a restriction that activists have decried as "voter suppression."
Organizers say they ultimately need 58,203 valid signatures — the equivalent of 15% of registered voters as of the last city election.
So far, the city has not responded to the group's claims or demands.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.