AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin voters could be one step closer to getting to decide whether low-level marijuana offenses should be decriminalized and whether "no knock" warrants should be banned in the city.
Ground Game Texas says it has collected more than 30,000 signatures from Austin registered voters for its "Austin Freedom Act of 2021" proposal. The group submitted those signatures to the Austin City Clerk's office Wednesday morning.
20,000 signatures is the threshold needed to qualify a citizen-led ballot initiative, under the city's charter. The clerk's office will now verify whether a sample of the submitted signatures are valid, which could take as long as 3-4 weeks.
Assuming the petition is certified as valid, City Council members will then have the decision of implementing the ordinances from the petition immediately, or putting the items on the ballot before voters in May 2022, which is the next statutorily-allowable election date for municipal issues.
"Thanks to the tireless efforts of the on-the-ground organizers from Ground Game Texas and partner organizations, Austin residents will soon have the ability to make lasting change to our antiquated and racist criminal justice laws," said Mike Siegel, political director at Ground Game Texas. "With successful campaigns like these, Ground Game Texas will continue to empower and excite communities around progressive change – and deliver for the marginalized communities that too often get left behind."
Under a memo from then-Chief Brian Manley, the Austin Police Department officially ended most arrests and ticketing for individual marijuana possession offenses in July of 2020.
