UPDATED: Audit Validates Library Petitioner's Signatures

It appears that the “Super Saturday” push by the   has paid off in terms of valid signature collection.

King County Elections Spokesperson Kim Van Ekstrom confirmed that the collected more than the necessary amount of valid signatures for its petition drive.

The group submitted a total of 9,399 signatures in total (6,383 of which were validated by King County Elections), and eight more valid signatures than the required 6,375.

King County Elections has communicated the validation with the city, but has “not yet officially transferred the information,” Van Ekstrom said. “The City will be getting a formal letter of sufficiency later today (Thursday).”

On March 15 the City released a memo calling the petition, “illegal,” or otherwise invalid due to a number of conflicts outlined in the document.

City Communications Director Preeti Shirdhar said the administration will make a recommendation to Council after they've received the letter of sufficiency from the County.

From City Clerk Bonnie Walton:

“...late afternoon yesterday the City did receive word from King County Elections indicating that the Initiative Petition has been found sufficient by a narrow margin.  The City will not, however, receive the actual official Certificate of Sufficiency for a few days.
The petition proponent was notified of the status via email earlier this morning.  As explained to the proponent, the Initiative petition matter will be placed on the City Council meeting agenda for April 2nd.  That agenda will be published later this afternoon and can be accessed through the City web site (www.rentonwa.gov) or you can go directly to http://renton.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspxunder where the agenda packet will be found under the category  Published Agendas/2012/April 2, 2012.”

Patch will update this article as more information becomes available.