LEWISTON — Twin Cities voters will not see a consolidation question on November’s ballot this year, according to organizers.
Chamber of Commerce Chair Chip Morrison said he and volunteers have collected about 650 signatures from Auburn voters and about 600 for Lewiston on petitions to put a Lewiston-Auburn charter commission on the ballot.
The group needs at least 1,000 signatures, and the deadline to get it on November’s ballot is Monday.
“We won’t make that,” Morrison said. “What I found — and I was out for seven hours last weekend — only one out of every eight houses I stopped at had anybody home. It is a holiday weekend, but it makes it tough to collect the signatures.”
Morrison said the group can easily collect the remaining signatures to put it on the ballot in June 2014.
“We have a great group of volunteers, and we will get it done,” he said. “When we get them, it will be placed on the very next ballot.”
If Morrison and his supporters manage to collect enough signatures, the cities will take nominating petitions for seats on a charter commission. Candidates would need to collect enough signatures and get their names on the ballot in their home city.
Voters would elect three members to sit on the commission and draw up a joint Lewiston-Auburn city charter — three members from each city.
The commission would draw up a charter and submit it to the voters for approval a year later.
“I’ve asked about 100 people to sign, but only three have said no,” Morrison said. “But there have been a lot of enthusiastic yeses. It’s just a matter of getting in front of enough people.”
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