The backstory here is that having failed in every other attempt to block the construction of a police training center near Atlanta, opponents decided they would put the issue on the ballot. To do this they needed to gather about 58,000 signatures.
In September the group turned in what they claimed were 116,000 signatures but then the legal wrangling began. Actually it started even before that as opponents demanded that people outside Atlanta be allowed to help gather signatures even though they couldn’t sign it themselves. They were also granted an extension on the time to gather signatures.
The city said it would confirm the count using signature matching, which opponents didn’t like, and also argued that the whole process probably wasn’t legal because a ballot initiative could not be used to break a legally signed city contract. The city refused to remove forward with the…
