Mary Ann Storry came to the meeting in the J.

Thursday, July 27, 2000

Mary Ann Storry came to the meeting in the J.C. Hormel Nature Center basement Wednesday just to sign her name to the petition asking for a referendum on the annexation of land west of the nature center. She was accompanied by 14-year-old Nancy Nelson.

"I grew up at the nature center," Nelson said. "I wish I could sign." She could sign, but, because she isn’t a registered voter, her signature wouldn’t count.

Disallowed signatures have been the problem so far for the group pushing a referendum. At the first deadline, the group turned in nearly 1,200 signatures. Of those, more than 400 were not allowed. When organizer Mike Pratt turned in 72 more signatures a week ago, only 48 were accepted. The key to the large number of signatures not being accepted lies in the state’s definition of a registered voter. Spokesman Dr. Mark Reeve asked the approximately 20 people gathered in the basement of the nature center interpretation center if they could define a registered voter in Austin.

"Eighteen or older, an Austin resident, registered to vote," City Council member Dick Lang said.

Not exactly, Reeve said. A voter also must have voted in the past four years to count, because the state drops a voter’s name from the list if he or she doesn’t vote in a four-year period.

"That’s why we have been losing between 30 and 40 percent of our signatures," he told the group.

Because volunteers know the state’s definition of a registered voter now, they have decided to turn in more than double the number of signatures needed.

Although the group has only 160 signatures to go to reach the necessary 972, group members were planning this morning to turn in 420 signatures to the city clerk’s office at City Hall. Although the results won’t be official until City Clerk Lucy Johnson is back from her vacation from work, Pratt said he would ask for an unofficial count by this afternoon so the group could collect more signatures – if needed – before Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline.

Talks didn’t stop with the petition for referendum, however. The question of whether a non-vote on the referendum counted as a "no" vote came up several times, as did the issue of planting prairie grasses and trees on the land to help with the problem of flooding on 12th Avenue NE.

Voter education will be the first topic on the agenda when the group next meets Sept. 12, if they succeed in getting the annexation on the November ballot.

"I told all the young people that I talked to that signing the papers was great," Pratt said, "but it won’t mean anything if you don’t go out and vote in November."