Sacramento County Nearly Finished With Petition Withdrawal Count

Before the petitions supporting the measure can be processed, the Sacramento County Registrar of Voters' office must  finish sorting 14-thousand petition withdrawal forms.  The forms were submitted by people who say they signed a ballot petition, but now want their signatures removed. 

County Registrar Jill LaVine says about 4,000 petition withdrawals have been tossed out.

"We can't read the name. We can't read the address.  We can not find them.  We've actually had blank forms turned in," LaVine says. "But, so far we've got a little over 9,000 withdrawals entered as valid voters within the Sacramento County."

LaVine says the withdrawals could be verified and in the registrar's database by late today.  The office will likely begin processing petitions on Thursday.  A computer will count how many petitions and petition withdrawals were signed by people registered to vote in the city of Sacramento. 

The measure will go on the ballot if 22,027 more petitions than signature withdrawals are verified.

January 2nd Update: The Sacramento County Registrar of Voters hopes to finish counting the petition withdrawals today and begin on the petitions supporting the measure tomorrow.