Taking on the Government MONROE RED LIGHT ROBO-TICKET CAMERA FOES GATHER MORE SIGNATURES
MONROE RED LIGHT ROBO-TICKET CAMERA FOES GATHER MORE SIGNATURES
May 31, 2011
Monroe residents want a voice on the robot ticket cameras.
Anti ticket camera signature gatherers at Monroe Library Monday May 30. In center in blue shirt is small government activist Tim Eyman. At right in photo next to Eyman is Ty Balascio of Monroe, leader of seedsofliberty.org. CLICK TO ENLARGE(MONROE, WA) -- Monroe area foes of the city’s red light robot cameras that spit out $124 tickets were at the Monroe Public Library Monday gathering more signatures for a petition needed to get a public vote on their issue.
On Monday May 23 Ty Balascio of Monroe, head of Seedsofliberty.org, delivered to Monroe City Hall 1,226 signatures of Monroe voters (they only needed 999) on Monroe Initiative No. 1.
The full story on that is here http://skyvalleychronicle.com/FEATURE-NEWS/MONROE-CITIZENS-TELL-CITY-HALL-br-We-want-vote-on-red-light-robo-ticket-cameras-br-I-Signature-petitions-turned-in-seeking-public-vote-I-670251
The measure would require Monroe to remove the cameras that are now up and ask for voter approval before installing any more cameras. The measure would also reduce the monetary fines from the tickets generated by such cameras.
However the group got word back from Garth Fell, Elections and Recording Manager at the Snohomish County Auditor's Office that after a review of the signatures, 625 were considered valid and 609 were challenged.
Since 999 voter signatures are needed total - and 625 are in the bag - that means the group needs 374 additional valid voter signatures by Friday, June 10th.
“That's a huge challenge but with a lot of hard work by Ty Balascio and his team, Monroe Initiative No. 1 will make it,” said long time area activist Tim Eyman.
Monday’s efforts produced an additional 156 signatures for the group.
“We had a great day today,” said organizer Balascio in a statement to supporters after the Monday effort.
“People really care about this issue and were glad to know their voices would be heard…we were very productive and raised 156 signatures in total. We still have a long way to go but today's work gets us much closer,” added Balascio.
Across the nation people in communities small and large are fighting the cameras for a variety of reasons including questions of due process of law and cities getting into bed with companies that provide a revenue stream to municipalities that opponents call “crack cocaine” for local governments.
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