re: BR Council members abstain re: Amoroso

quote:

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The deadline for the St. George movement to turn in their signatures is during that 9 month period, which means that assuming the St. George petition can get enough verified signings, it will come up for a vote before the metro council to place it on a parish wide ballot before March as well. This move would ensure a no better than 50/50 council vote on St. George meaning that even if the petitioners get the required number of signatures, they still won’t get a chance to vote on the initiative at the ballot box. By the time an election can be held, the movement will already be defeated and they’ll have to wait like 3 years to try again.

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This is not true. That's not how this works. The metro council doesn't get to decide whether or not they want to put it on the ballot. If the required number of signatures is certified, it goes on the ballot in the area defined in the petition for incorporation only. Period. Nobody else gets to vote or has to give permission for the election to happen. The signatures are everything. All elected officials can do is certify whether or not everything is proper as outlined by law. Once everything is certified, elected officials are compelled to put it on the ballot. If they refuse, they're going to find themselves on the wrong end of a judge.

In fact, here's the people that the petition goes through.

-Secretary of State recognizes the petition and petition officals and starts the official process and clock for completion
-The organizers enter into the proscribed signing period and begin to collect signatures
-After signatures are collected, the completed petition is sent back to the Secretary of State to certify everything is in order
-If the petition is in order, the SoS sends it to the registrar of voters in the parishes affected for certification of signatures
-The Registrar checks signatures against voting rolls and if the signatures are proper and there are enough of them, the Registrar certifies and notifies the Governor
-The Governor checks to make sure the petition is proper and calls a special election if it is.
-The vote for incorporation occurs on the next available election day and is decided on only by the people who live in the area defined in the petition for incorporation.

At any point in that process do you see "EBR Metro Council"? Also, is there any point in there where elected officials can decide to do whatever the frick they want? No, none of that is in there because you were talking out of your arse.

Terrible