Despite gaining over 1,400 signatures as noted earlier this week, the petition protesting the potential for a data center in Emporia has been deemed invalid as of Friday.
The petition, which was delivered to the City offices Tuesday, immediately underwent review by Lyon County Legal Counsel Molly Priest to determine if the petition’s question, “Shall the following ordinance be adopted? ‘An Ordinance of the City of Emporia, Kansas, prohibiting the installation and operation of High Impact Data Centers and Type 2 and Type 3 battery energy storage systems to protect the health, safety and welfare of the residents of Emporia, Kansas,” was in accordance with requirements. Priest determined it was, moving the petition along to Lyon County Clerk Amie Jones for verification of signatures and other matters.
Jones says the petition had all of the signed pages as well as affidavits stating the signatures were witnessed by circulators and were properly notarized. However, according to Jones, the issue that ultimately led to the petition being deemed invalid was how it was submitted.
She explained that while all of the legal requirements had been followed, the pages and affidavits were not submitted in a way that clearly detailed who had witnessed the signings of which pages and on which days.
Due to this issue, Jones says she was unable to begin the signature verification process. KVOE News did ask if petitioners could resubmit the petition in the correct format.
Jones stated there was more information needed on that end; however, to her knowledge, the invalidation of the petition as submitted would require organizers to restart the petition campaign.
The petition began circulating almost immediately after the announcement of plans for the Flint Hills Digital Campus last month, with Emporia Neighbors United organizing and leading the effort. KVOE News has reached out to Neighbors United for a reaction to Friday’s decision.
In a post on the coalition’s Facebook page Friday, Emporia Neighbors United stated, “We received the news about the petition being invalid just like everyone else, through the city and local news sources. We are working diligently to meet with the county elections office and the County counselor to get information on how it failed to make the mark. We will be revising and running it again! We will not let this stop us; we will continue to fight.”
Stay with KVOE, KVOE.com and KVOE social media for more updates as they develop. Click here for KVOE’s YouTube channel, including a YouTube Short video discussing the latest developments.
We have a copy of Jones’ letter regarding the petition available below.
