More than 33,000 people have signed the petition for the “SA Justice Charter,” but only 20,000 of those signatures have been verified. On May 6, San Antonians will likely cast their ballots on a city charter change that would legalize Marijuana and abortion.
The coalition working to get the issue onto the ballot has been led by Act 4 SA, and they need at least 20,000 signatures to do so. If the coalition wants the amendment to appear on the May 6 ballot, according to Executive Director Ananda Tomas, the petition must be submitted by that date so that the city clerk has time to verify the signatures are from San Antonio voters.
Tomas estimates that the coalition has 33,000 valid signatures after verifying 18,000 of them on its own, making it highly probable that its petition would meet the threshold for the vote. The 13-page charter amendment would make permanent and expand certain existing regulations, like the cite-and-release program and bans on choke holds and no-knock warrants, in addition to decriminalizing abortion and marijuana possession.
In addition, it would establish a new “Justice Director” job that no one with relevant experience in law enforcement would be qualified to fill. Ananda Tomas stated that the marijuana decriminalization part is the primary reason people are signing, but “honestly, two-thirds of the folks that have signed for us are women, suggesting that the abortion piece is also the second-most-popular option.”
KSAT spotted a signature gatherer on Wednesday, and it seemed like their pitch had nothing to do with anything but weed. Tomas, however, claims that they have taught everyone adequately to analyze the entire planned change.
In other words, we always have the official policy language on hand. All of us are carrying our push cards at all times. If anyone is interested, we’d be happy to demonstrate. Tomas explained that there is a caption atop each petition that answers the question, “What is on this petition?”
