Strong-mayor supporters continue quest for signatures

A group trolling for voters across Colorado Springs in a last-ditch effort to get a proposed charter change on the Nov. 2 ballot has collected 2,117 signatures so far.

The group, which wants voters to approve a switch to a strong-mayor form of government from the city’s longstanding council-manager system of government, needs to submit 1,444 signatures to put the question on the ballot.

But the signatures have to be from registered voters who live in the city.

As a result, the group, Citizens for Accountable Leadership, plans to collect at least 3,000 signatures before Tuesday’s deadline to be sure it has enough.

“We’re confident that we will” meet the target, Rachel Beck, a spokeswoman for the so-called Mayor Project, said today.

The magic number for the group is 25,091 signatures.

A few weeks ago, members of the group confidently turned in 10 boxes of petitions with more than 36,000 signatures after spending tens of thousands of dollars on the signature-gathering effort. But it missed the target by 1,444 signatures from registered city voters.

Meanwhile, City Clerk Kathryn Young said her office has spent $7,850 so far to print petitions for the group and pay election judges to verify signatures, among other costs.

“The costs, because it is less than $10,000, will probably be absorbed within the general fund budget rather than through an appropriation ordinance,” she said in an e-mail.