PARKERSBURG — The nearly 3,000 signatures submitted to the City of Parkersburg for the referendum petition to repeal a city council ordinance approving a contract for trash service was deemed nearly 700 signatures short upon review and validation.

After review by the Wood County Clerk’s Office Friday, the signatures were sent to the city clerk’s office, where it was determined there were 2,091 valid signatures.

City Clerk Connie Shaffer said she received the certificate of validation from the county clerk Friday.

Valid signatures were based on the county clerk’s verifications through voting records attached to each signature. Invalid signatures could’ve been invalid for multiple reasons — whether the signature couldn’t be read or wasn’t verifiable through a voter registration card.

“The process is very tedious,” said Shaffer.

In order for the petition to be certified, there must be at least 2,763 signatures of registered voters in the city, which equates to 15% of registered voters in the 2024 election.

Organizers in support of the petition need at least 672 validated signatures submitted in the next 10 days, according to City Attorney Blaine Myers.

“They were well short of what was needed,” he said. “Procedurally, there could be many different routes this could go if they were to get enough valid signatures.”

Myers said the ordinance the petitioners want on the ballot may not be subject to referendum.

Referring to his previous statements, Myers said the ordinance couldn’t be a referendum because it related to the appropriation of money.

In his written memorandum March 5, he advised Shaffer deem the referendum petition insufficient because it appropriates money for essential services provided by the city.

Petition committee member Edward Escandon said they were hoping the city would provide more details about why certain signatures submitted weren’t considered valid.

“All we got back was a number,” he said. “We were hoping they’d give us the reasons for the exact signatures so we’d know whose signatures we needed to go back and redo.”

Escandon said starting Monday, the petition organizers have a cure period of 10 days to gather more signatures. According to Shaffer, those signatures would then be taken to County Clerk Joe Gonzales who would have 20 days to verify each name again.

Escandon said he expected the petition committee would meet the goal in due time, and that they were able to achieve so much with such a small amount of volunteers.

“The whole purpose of this petition is to get this on the ballot and let the voters decide,” he said. “We’ve paid so much money for this infrastructure and we’re just tossing it out for a third party.”

Escandon said even if they don’t end up meeting the deadline or getting enough valid signatures, they accomplished a lot by going door-to-door and speaking with residents of the city.

“There’s a historic aspect to all of this,” he said. “Maybe we will get an explanation about the invalid signatures, maybe we won’t, but we’re going to keep getting those signatures.”

Shaffer said this process doesn’t happen very often, and that she doesn’t know of the exact number of petitions attempted or how many have succeeded over the years.