Politics & Government

Library Petition Lacks Needed Signatures; Volunteers Hit The Streets For 'Super Saturday'

Citizens for the preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library is launching into a 'Super Saturday' canvassing effort to collect an additional 1,442 signatures of support for a library petition.

Citizens for the preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library is launching into “Super Saturday,” a canvassing effort to collect additional signatures of support for a petition that would change the future course of the downtown Renton Library.

The petition asks the City to either invest in the current Liberty Park location over the Cedar River or bring a change of location to a vote of the people.

Only 4,933 matched the voter’s list at King County elections and were validated, which was short of the necessary 6,375 signatures needed for the petition.

Find out what's happening in Rentonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Now the Citizens for the preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library has 10 days to collect an additional 1,442 valid signatures.

“In an effort to achieve this goal, petitioners are planning a Super Saturday canvassing effort,” said Stuart Avery. “They are asking for any all Renton resident interested in making this petition campaign a success to volunteer three to five hours of their time this coming Saturday March 10. Volunteers are asked to meet at the downtown library at 9 a.m., where they will be provided with petitions, instructions, signs and supplies.”

Find out what's happening in Rentonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

During the last drive for signatures, the group had six months — this time they have less than two weeks, so Citizens for the preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library volunteers are preparing for a major push over then next 10 days.

“This effort will rely on the public stepping up to help push the effort to the finish line,” Avery said. “Many Renton residents have expressed an interest in helping out, and this an opportunity to do so in a way that will make the difference between success or failure of the initiative campaign in these final days.

Signatures were considered invalid if they were illegible, didn’t match the signature on file, if the address was outside city limits, or if the voter’s registration was canceled, among other reasons, said King County Elections spokesperson Kim Van Ekstrom.

But Avery is concerned about the validation process.

“This is a pretty high failure ratio for a signature drive like this,” he said. “I’m kind of questioning the methods that King County uses.”

Avery said other members of Citizens for the preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library plan to put more pressure on the City via public comment and public records requests.

"If the city is going to move forward with this, we ask that they do it above board," he said.

More information about the petition is available at www.rentonlibrary.com.

Patch will update this story as more information is available.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here