6/17/2009
DAVID CLOUSTON
The opponents of Salina’s clean indoor air ordinance have come up significantly short of the signatures they needed on a petition seeking to call a special election to have voters decide the issue of a public smoking ban.
Although the opponents claimed to have 2,150 signatures gathered, the Saline County Clerk’s office could find only 1,757 on the 90 pages of petitions that were turned in by Gary Swartzendruber and Beth Owens on June 9. Opponents are seeking to have the ordinance, which took effect May 2, repealed.
The ordinance bans smoking in nearly all public places, including bars, private clubs and bingo parlors.
The number of signatures that could be verified totaled  994, short 396 from the 1,390 signatures that were needed, said Saline  County Clerk Don Merriman. That number represents 25 percent of Salina city voters who cast ballots in the last election.
Only city voters were eligible to sign the petition. Many signers were either not registered to vote or their addresses they listed didn’t match the address in the voting registration records, Merriman said.


For more on the failure of the anti-ban petition, read reporter David Clouston's story in Thursday's Salina Journal.

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