Advocates of Madison County voting the county wet, say they were hit with unexpected news from County Clerk Kenny Barger today. Wes Browne, local attorney and partner in the Apollo Pizza chain, says he received a call from Barger Monday in regard to how the signatures would be delivered to his office. During the course of that conversation, Browne found out there was a misunderstanding on their end regarding the deadline to deliver those signatures.
Browne said he and Barger had a differing opinion as to when the deadline for the signatures to be submitted was. After a discussion with Barger, Browne conceded the deadline could be interpreted to be a week earlier than expected. Browne expressed that opinion was due to what he deemed “contradictory language” in the specific statute.
“A recent surge in signatures made us feel confident, but this unexpected deadline change has us anxious to secure enough signatures to make it a certainty, as we don’t want to leave anything to chance,” stated Browne.
Accordingly, any Madison County registered voter who wants to add their signature to the petition to put county wide alcohol sales on the upcoming May ballot, should sign prior to 2:30 Tuesday. The petition can be accessed at alcoholvote.com.
Browne also stated, although he was shocked to get the news, “I was very grateful to get the call from clerk Barger. Although he called about something different, we discovered we would have missed the deadline all together.”
