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Morning Notes

Published May 6, 2011 at 8:31AM

Petition Contractor Waives Extradition — The man whose company was hired to collect signatures for a petition to change Arlington’s form of government is likely headed to the Arlington County lockup. Shawn D. Wilmoth, 24, was indicted last month on voter fraud charges. Yesterday he waived extradition in Macomb County, Mich. [Washington Post]

McLean Residents May Sue Over Redistricting ‘Insult’ — McLean residents are apparently none too pleased that their pristine ‘burb has had its state Senate representation split in two by redistricting. One of the new McLean districts is the 31st, which also includes most of North Arlington. One resident said it was an “insult” to have their neighborhood lumped in with Arlington. A McLean citizens group is contemplating a lawsuit over the redistricting outcome. [Sun Gazette]

News

Brink Introduces Bills to Prevent Another Referendum Debacle

By ARLnow.com

Published January 19, 2011 at 8:46AM

One bill, HB 1646, calls for the name and address of a petition signature gatherer to be present on both sides of the petition form. The bill is in response to “numerous reports where the description of the person who signed the forms as petition circulator didn’t match the description of the individual actually gathering the signatures.”

So far, HB 1646 is still awaiting a subcommittee vote.

News

CAGG: Thousands of Petition Signatures May Be Invalid

By ARLnow.com

Published July 27, 2010 at 3:56AM | Updated July 27, 2010 at 5:13PM

CAGG, a largely Democratic group set up to oppose the change-of-government proposal, alleges that CBA used hired, out-of-state signature gatherers who were legally ineligible to circulate petitions in Arlington. Then, CAGG suggests, two individuals may have falsely signed affidavits claiming to have collected the signatures actually gathered by the out-of-town contractors. More than 6,000 signatures may be invalid as a result, CAGG says.

The two individuals in question collected a suspiciously large number of signatures in an unusual manner, according to CAGG. Other evidence, methodically laid out in a nine-page PDF file, calls into question the integrity of the affidavit portion of the petitions, some of which appear to have different handwriting for the same individual.

News

Projection: Change-of-Government Effort Has Failed

By ARLnow.com

Published July 22, 2010 at 5:05PM | Updated July 23, 2010 at 3:54PM

As of 2:30 this afternoon, election officials had counted 12,621 signatures, out of the 14,350 required by law to get a referendum on the ballot. Election staff are nearly finished with their “second pass” through the 761 petition sheets submitted by the Committee for a Better Arlington. A third pass is unlikely to yield a significant number of additional signatures.

Arlington County General Registrar Linda Lindberg says her staff has completed their second pass over about 700 petition pages. Since about 10,200 signatures were validated during the first pass, that means the second pass is, on average, validating 3.5 additional signatures per page. But with only 61 pages to go, it’s likely that the petition will only have about 12,900 valid signatures going into the third pass, which is expected to start Monday.

News

Prospects For Change-of-Government Referendum Dimming

By ARLnow.com

Published July 19, 2010 at 12:39PM

It’s looking increasingly unlikely that the Committee for a Better Arlington will reach the mark needed to get a proposed change to Arlington’s form of government on the November ballot.

With approximately 250 pages to go during their “first pass” through the 761 petition sheets submitted, county election personnel say they’ve have counted 8,123 valid signatures. A total of 14,350 valid signatures are needed.

News

Change-of-Government Margin of Error: 2,082 Signatures

By ARLnow.com

Published July 16, 2010 at 2:46PM | Updated July 19, 2010 at 1:59PM

Officials counted a total of 16,432 signatures on the 761 petition sheets submitted before yesterday’s 4:00 p.m. deadline. The 57 sheets submitted yesterday contained 950 names, officials said.

Specially-trained staffers have begun the process of matching up the names and addresses on petition sheets to individuals on the county’s voter registration rolls. So far, about 3,100 names have been validated, according to county registrar Linda Lindberg.

News

UPDATED: County Counting Petition Signatures

By ARLnow.com

Published July 15, 2010 at 4:00PM | Updated July 16, 2010 at 1:02AM

Update at 10:05 a.m. — An additional 54 petition sheets have just been submitted to the county clerk’s office, and another batch may be on the way, we’re told.

Update at 12:05 p.m. — Unofficial signature count from the first batch: 15,482.

News

Change-of-Government Petitions Submitted

By ARLnow.com

Published July 14, 2010 at 3:14PM

Supporters of a proposed change in the county’s form of government submitted their petitions to the Clerk of the Arlington County Circuit Court this morning, the Sun Gazette first reported.

A formal hand-off of the petitions from the clerk to Arlington County General Registrar Linda Lindberg, whose department will verify the signatures, will take place at 9:00 tomorrow morning, the county said in a statement. Supporters need 14,350 valid signatures to get the proposal on the November ballot.

News

Signature-Gathering Enters Homestretch for Change-of-Government Proponents

By ARLnow.com

Published July 12, 2010 at 3:17PM | Updated July 12, 2010 at 3:40PM

Speaking to ARLnow.com at the Columbia Pike Farmers Market Sunday afternoon, signature collector Robert Farrell said they’ve collected about 15,000 signatures already and are trying to collect about 2,000 more by the deadline as a “cushion” to make up for signatures that might be disqualified by the registrar (due to duplicate signatures or an out-of-county address).

Officially, the Committee has declined to discuss the exact progress of its signature-gathering effort, except to express confidence that it will be successful.

News

Supreme Court Decision May Affect Change-of-Government Petition

By ARLnow.com

Published June 25, 2010 at 5:04PM

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that people who sign referendum petitions generally can’t claim a First Amendment privilege for keeping their names secret. The ruling may affect the change-of-government petition currently circulating around Arlington.

Change-of-government critics have suggested that the names of petition signers should be made public.

News

Petition Opponents Call for Signature Submission

By ARLnow.com

Published June 11, 2010 at 7:49AM | Updated June 11, 2010 at 10:11AM

The Coalition for Arlington Good Government (CAGG), formed to actively oppose a proposed change in Arlington County’s form of government, is calling on supporters of the change-of-government referendum to submit the signatures they have gathered early.

Citing an ARLnow.com story in which a volunteer signature-gatherer commented that supporters have already gathered the necessary 14,350 signatures, CAGG co-chair Alan Howze wrote:

Around Town

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published June 7, 2010 at 6:01AM

It’s Pride Week In Arlington — June 7-13 is Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Week in Arlington. County Board Chairman Jay Fisette, Virginia’s first openly gay elected official, signed the proclamation on Wednesday. Arlington’s pride week is timed to coincide with the larger Capital Pride Week. An Arlington “Pride Social” will be held at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant (555 South 23rd Street) from 6:00 to 9:00 Friday night.

AGLA Board: “Decline to Sign” — The Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance is urging supporters to “decline to sign” the hotly-debated change-of-government petition. The AGLA and other petition critics say a change in the county’s form of government would, as a result of the Dillon Rule, eliminate Arlington’s ability to stop discrimination based on sexual orientation.