City of St. George effort apparently fails

Advocate

A petition drive to get a measure on the ballot to create a new City of St. George has fallen short of the number of names required, a group opposing the incorporation effort is reporting.

The Residents Against the Breakaway group posted on its Facebook site a letter from Registrar of Voters Steve Raborn stating that fewer than 25 percent of registered voters within the proposed city limits.

The letter was dated Saturday with a time of 5 p.m. and is posted on the group’s Facebook site, https://www.facebook.com/RATBBatonRouge .

The city of St. George petition effort failed by 71 votes, the East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters announced Saturday.

The shortfall means that after more than a year of working toward a vote to create the new city of St George, that the city proposal will not be voted on and the thousands of signatures collected on the petition will be voided. Volunteers with the effort are barred from starting anew for two years.
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The pro-St. George group also posted on its website that it was informed Saturday afternoon that they were 71 signatures short of the 17,788 required.

“We are in the process of reviewing the verification and tabulation process as well as preparing a legal challenge,” the group said.

“We believe there were clear errors in the process, and that in fact the total number of signatures obtained on the petition well exceeds the statutory number required. To say this is over would be inaccurate. We will continue to fight to ensure the people’s voice is heard.”