Vote on the Pier Mails Out 40K Petitions

Despite the passing of what Vote on the Pier for the pier petitions, VoteOnThePier.com has sent out 40,000 petitions to registered voters in St. Petersburg. 

Tom Lambdon, organizer of Vote on the Pier, said he used the list from the Supervisor of Elections to send out the petitions in hopes to make sure only registered voters are signing petitions. 

"We used the database we received from the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections so these will only be going to current registered City voters," Lambdon told Patch. "This directly eliminates the fallout rate we have experienced from the beginning; with many people filling out petitions just because they are passionate for the cause and would like to see the Pier decided by referendum."

Lambdon said registered voters in St. Pete should have received the petitions on Friday or Saturday last week. 

The petition drive has had trouble with many voters signing but is either a county resident with a city address but not a city resident. Many signed petitions are also from people who had moved out of the city since the petition drive began.

Earlier this year out for those very reasons.

"We obviously have no idea, out of the 40,000 being mailed out, what the return rate will be," Lambdon said. "But with the outrage towards the City’s 'Lens' plans it could be significant. And either way should easily bridge the gap we need to fill to complete this long and hard petition drive of the last 19 months. Hopefully this coming week."

Last week the city finished its fourth and final "Lens" public input meeting with much the same results as the first three. The public does not support the "Lens". 

Only one of the speakers at last week's meeting spoke in favor of the "Lens" with most wanting to refurbish the existing pier or rebuild it. The other major have been the lack of over-water programming.