Not Dead Yet

District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly
Photos by Luke Thomas

By Chris Daly

February 23, 2008

A quick read of this morning’s Chronicle might lead you to believe that the Bayview Affordable Housing Initiative is dead in the water…

Candlestick housing petition count short

A signature drive for a San Francisco ballot measure to require that half the housing constructed at Candlestick Point and Hunters Point be priced affordably failed an early test on Friday. The city Department of Elections conducted a random sample of the 11,311 signatures turned in by the backers of the measure and found an insufficient number could be verified as coming from registered voters.

First of all, the final certified count of signatures turned into the Department of Elections was actually 11,811. Second, the Chronicle fails to mention the provisions of the California Elections Code that governs the sampling of signatures.

9115. (b) If the statistical sampling shows that the number of valid signatures is within 95 to 110 percent of the number of signatures of qualified voters needed to declare the petition sufficient, the elections official shall… examine and verify each signature filed.

In a memo release yesterday, the Department of Elections states, “the review of the random sample did demonstrate the petition as having a sufficient number of valid signatures to require the Department to review the remaining… signatures.” This means that the first sample produced between 95% and 110% of the required number.

We always knew that collecting these signatures in only 10 days was going to be difficult. When we turned the signatures in, I acknowledged that it would be close. Getting the signatures required to force a full count is a major victory!

We were fortunate to have dozens of volunteers braving the cold wind and rain, and now the odds are two-to-one in our favor.

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