The East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters office isn’t likely to begin verifying signatures on the city of St. George incorporation petition until after the first of the year, which means the issue won’t make a ballot until May at the very earliest.
Though that’s only a couple weeks away, organizers of the incorporation effort had hoped the time-consuming verification process could begin as soon as the Nov. 4 general election and Dec. 6 runoff were over.
However, a spokeswoman in the registrar’s office says the staff is still busy with paperwork related to provisional votes cast in the recent elections. Also, the office still is waiting on information from St. George organizers about the exact boundaries of the proposed city.
“Then we have the holidays next week,” says Priscilla Arceneaux. “So it will likely be the first of the year.”
When the petition drive started early this year, organizers hoped to gather the necessary 18,000 signatures—and have them validated—in time to get on one of the fall ballots. Then they targeted the March ballot. Now, it might be May, according to city of St. George spokesman Lionel Rainey.
“There is nothing we can do outside of continuing to collect signatures for however many short we may be,” Rainey says. “We knew from the beginning a fight of this magnitude wasn’t going to be quick or easy.” —Stephanie Riegel
