Nearly 100 signatures on the petition asking the state to audit the city may be removed.
According to Okmulgee County election board secretary Ashley Carnes, petition organizer Buck Sheward delivered 98 voter registration forms to her office Tuesday.
If those names appear on the petition they will be considered not valid and will be removed, Carnes pointed out Friday. She said the earliest they could be considered valid would be Spetember 1. "If someone signed the petition prior to that and had later registered to vote, their signature would also be considered invalid," Carnes said Friday.
She said she had just received the packet of signed petitions Friday morning and was in the process of verifying signatures. That process is expected to take several days. She plans to print out a list of valid voter registration names and compare them to those signed. If the name on the petition does not appear on her list, it would be removed.
Sheward was required to have no less than 283 signatures on the audit petition. According to one state source, he had 393. He and his supporters have been canvassing the town seeking support for the audit, the second in two years. The first audit resulted in the town paying $40,000. This one is estimated to cost between $50,000 and $70,000.
Another petition circulated by Sheward called for a change in the city charter. It also wants an election to be called any the the city wanted to increase utility rates. That petition is currently in the hands of the district court. Mayor Jennifer Clason called it "fatally flawed" since Henryetta is not a charter city but instead is governed by state statute. In the past two months, the city has paid out some $13,300 in legal fees to fight it.