The petition drive to put alcohol sales in Benton County on the November ballot reached the number of verified signatures needed Sunday, according to Benton County Clerk Tena O’Brien.
“We’ve reached the magic number,” O’Brien said Sunday after the clerk’s office staff put in a second day of work over the weekend verifying signatures on the petitions.
O’Brien said the staff’s tabulation reached the required number of verified signatures shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday and they continued working for some time after that. She said the clerk’s office accepted 41,416 signatures, giving the petition drive a slight margin over the 41,171 signatures needed.
The petitions were submitted July 12 and the clerk’s office had until July 23 to complete the work of checking the names and verifying whether they were from individuals registered to vote in Benton County. O’Brien said the majority of signatures rejected were from people who were not registered voters. A number of signatures were listed as “pending” when the office was unable to match the information from the petitions with voter registration information on file with the county.
O’Brien said she was uncertain if the state will require her to check and verify the complete list of names on the petitions or accept the certification of a number sufficient to place the measure on the ballot. She said she will seek guidance on that and the staff will continue entering all of the signatures as a matter of record.
“I honestly, at this point, don’t know,” she said about the requirements for checking, verifying and submitting the complete results. “I’ll have to find out and get some direction. This is all new territory for me.”