Anti ‘Cop City’ Activists Submit Signatures To Put Police Training Center on Atlanta Ballot — But Process Stalls at City Hall

The fate of a push to bring what critics have called "Cop City," a planned $90 million Atlanta-area police training center before voters this fall, is in legal limbo.

Organizers of the Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition on Monday delivered more than 116,000 signatures to force the matter onto the ballot this fall. The referendum would come months after the City Council voted in June to ratify plans for the controversial facility that's slated to be built on city-owned land outside Atlanta in DeKalb County.

But city officials said they could not begin to verify the signatures because the campaign missed the Aug. 21 deadline set by law, while organizers of the opposition movement argue court rulings have muddled when exactly the petition was due back at City Hall.

The city's Clerk Emeritus Foris Webb III said petitioners had 60 days since pulling papers on June 21 to submit signatures. Monday marked 81 days since petitions were initially issued to the coalition.

"The petitioners could have turned their petition in, on, or before, Aug. 21, and indeed several times said they were going to do so but opted instead to take an additional three weeks to circulate their petition for signature," Webb said in a statement.

However, in July, a federal judge extended the deadline through Sept. 25 and earlier this month, an appellate court paused that order, leaving the deadline "ambiguous," Kurt Kastorf, an attorney representing the coalition, told reporters on Monday.

He said organizers reached out to the city soon after receiving that court order but heard "nothing back" until officials handed them a memo on Monday stating they would not act on the petition until if and when the appeals court issues legal guidance.

The coalition slammed the city's refusal to verify the signatures as "another disgraceful push by the city to stonewall democracy."

“What we are presenting is a clear mandate for the City Council to put Cop City on the ballot,” Coalition Leader Mary Hooks said in a press release on Tuesday.

“From every corner of Atlanta, the people have chosen, and the people demand a voice. It’s time to let Atlanta decide, and it’s time for the City Council to respect the process, the will of the voters, and put this to a public vote.”

The coalition has now filed a motion in federal court in an attempt to compel the city into starting the verification process.

Webb, the clerk emeritus, said officials took the signatures and "have locked them away in a secure location" until they receive a court ruling.

Organizers behind the ballot petition have said they needed at least 58,203 signatures to bring the issue before voters this November. The coalition said last month it had gathered 80,000 signatures as of Aug. 13.

Specifically, residents would be asked whether they want to keep or repeal a 2021 law that authorizes the city to lease roughly 300 acres for the planned facility, now under construction, to the Atlanta Police Foundation.