BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Based on two days of checking, proponents of a Reds stadium at Broadway Commons will have enough valid signatures to get the measure on the November ballot.
Late Tuesday, the Hamilton County Board of Elections had checked more than 6,000 signatures against voter records, and it was finding that three in four were valid.
At that rate, the 45,000 signatures gathered by Broadway supporters should yield the 26,800 valid names needed to place the question to a countywide vote.
A full count is expected in the middle of next week.
"It's unbelievable," said Jim Tarbell, Cincinnati city councilman and the leader of the Broadway effort.
"We had no plans three weeks ago. We had no budget, we had no staff, no strategy," he said. "We just went full-speed ahead. It was a broad base of support."
The petition could still face legal challenges. Elections Director Bruce Taylor said he heard that some petitions were left unattended. Signatures must be witnessed or they are illegal. If there is evidence that signatures were unwitnessed, whole pages may be thrown out.
Mr. Taylor said he will ask the elections board for direction, but he will not do so without more evidence. "No one has officially brought this to my attention," he said. "Is it just hearsay or does someone have tangible evidence?"
Mr. Tarbell said he had heard that Broadway opponents were writing "left unattended" on some petitions as though it was a signature. He said he and the two dozen petition volunteers did not bother weeding out those pages because they were so few.
"This is going to come back to haunt them," he said. "What is this, old Russia to send out spies like that?"
One campaign volunteer said the elections board will be asked to throw out two petitions left at PJ's on Court Street. They total 46 signatures.
County commissioners also challenged the petition because the wording was changed slightly after it began circulating. Petitioners have said they eliminated the early copies.
Commissioners asked the county prosecutor for a ruling, and he said the elections board must make that call, said Tom Neyer Jr., county commission president.
The commission must certify the signatures to the board of elections no later than Thursday evening, and at this point, Mr. Neyer said, he can see no reason not to.
Commissioners and the Reds have already agreed on a site for the new ballfield, between Cinergy Field and the Crown on Cincinnati's riverfront.
Opening up the site question may put other parts of the agreement in jeopardy, one county adviser has said.
Also, the ballot question creates a county charter, a measure that normally restructures county government and gives it broad new lawmaking powers. But this particular charter is written so that it changes nothing, only opens the door for the Broadway vote. Opponents have said it may not be that simple. Once a charter is created, commissioners could amend it to bring about more sweeping change.
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