We had no choice but to file a lawsuit to qualify our stop light rail initiative. We did what was required. We had to find 5,472 Vancouver voters who were willing to put their valid signature on a petition. We achieved that. But perfectly valid voter signatures were rejected, contrary to a 1977 Supreme Court ruling. We’re asking the court to remedy that, as reported in the Feb. 12 Columbian story, “Light-rail opponents file suit.”
We’re lucky. Initiative activist Tim Eyman called and said he’d been following our situation and asked if we had an attorney. We didn’t. Eyman asked if we wanted his help. We did. He got us hooked up with Stephen Pidgeon, a brilliant lawyer who has been defending initiative rights for years. We’ve set up a legal defense fund and are working hard to raise $20,000 to pay for Pidgeon’s services. Eyman helped us locate and contact voters whose valid signatures were rejected, asking them to be plaintiffs in the case. Since we needed 32 signatures, our goal was to find 33 plaintiffs. We were absolutely blown away by the response and 75 people enthusiastically agreed.
We’ve got a great case, an experienced attorney, and an expert adviser.
Larry Patella
Vancouver
