It’s too late for any of the Prairie Village petitions to make it onto the Nov. 7 ballot, says the county election office.
In a statement issued Friday evening regarding the three resident-led petitions, Johnson County Election Commissioner Fred Sherman said it was too late to add any additional items on the upcoming general election ballot.
The statement came as the legal case over the petitions’ fate remains unresolved.
The city and the group of residents pushing the petitions were still waiting Friday to receive a final ruling from Johnson County District Court Judge Rhonda Mason, who is deciding whether any of the three petitions are legally valid to put before voters.
Sherman’s announcement Friday appears to effectively make that case moot as far as November’ election is concerned, though a petition could be put on a future ballot.
Why can’t the petitions go on the Nov. 7 ballot?
Sherman said it is now a week past the original Sept. 1 deadline to place items on the Nov. 7 ballot.
“Due to logistics required to prepare ballots and the need to meet legally mandated deadlines, the Election Office is now past the point at which it can accept additional items for the November ballot,” Sherman said in his statement.
He continued to say that the “timelines exist to ensure we are able to conduct elections with the necessary diligence.”
The election office needs time to proof ballots, program, test voting machines, print advance mail ballots and send overseas ballots to members of the military, he noted.
Questions may be placed on ballots in future elections “depending on the relevant law,” Sherman said.
What petitions are we talking about?
The three petitions were circulated this summer by a group of residents opposed to the city’s housing recommendations known as PV United, or Stop Rezoning Prairie Village.
A “rezoning” petition would define rezoning in way that would limit multifamily developments in a majority of Prairie Village.
An “abandon” petition calls for throwing out the city’s current mayor-council form of government in an effort to limit mayoral powers in what petitioners have characterized as Prairie Village’s “strong mayor” form of government.
And an “adoption” petition wants to put a mayor-council-manager form of government in place of the current government and cut the city council in half from 12 to six councilmembers. In doing so, six sitting councilmembers would see their current terms end two years early.
Judge Mason on Thursday issued two contradictory rulings — one orally from the bench and the other in writing — regarding the two government petitions, leaving it unclear which of the two was eligible for the ballot. In both her rulings, she deemed the “rezoning” petition ineligible to put before voters.
What are both sides saying?
Prairie Village acknowledged receipt of the election office’s statement Friday evening.
“The City received this notification at the same time as other media organizations,” City Administrator Wes Jordan said in an email to the Post. “It is apparent that from Mr. Sherman’s statements that any petition decision by Judge Mason would not be considered for placement on the ballot this November.”
Dan Schoepf, a spokesperson for Stop Rezoning Prairie Village group, did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment for this story on Friday. This story will be updated when we hear back.
Go deeper: Prairie Village petitions remain in limbo — Here’s what we know
