PETITIONS FOR TERM LENGTHS AND ADDITIONAL DISTRICTS

City Council Broke the Promise They Made to YOU!

On May 7th, City Council voted to change their term lengths from 2 years to 4 years starting with elections in 2026. They had assured the public they would NOT do this on their own. But, instead would put the question to the voters at the upcoming election this November. They broke their promise. But, we can FORCE them to keep their word and add the question to the ballot in November. We need to collect 5,000 signatures of registered Raleigh voters, have those signatures verified by the Board of Elections and finally deliver those signatures to the Raleigh City Council within 30 days (Give or take. We don’t know the actual day the timer starts until the city publishes a formal notice).

The City Council also chose NOT to move forward with any action to add more district councilors to the City Council. The City has had only 5 districts since the 1970s and we have grown from a population of 122K to over 467K. We have also grown from 45 square miles to 211. It’s time for adding more districts. Since we are gathering signatures for the term length question, we are going to also collect signatures to put the question of adding 3 districts to City Council on the ballot as well. These would be two separate questions on the ballot. They are NOT dependent on each other.

We need your help to gather the necessary signatures as quickly as possible.

Download the forms, sign for yourself, then get your family, friends and neighbors to sign. Get the forms back to us so we can get them verified with the Board of Elections.

You can help us get petition signatures!

• We have two petitions. One to force a vote on term lengths and one to force a vote to add 3 more council districts.
• No one is required to sign BOTH
• Only Raleigh registered voters can sign the petitions. You must live in the city (not in the ETJ or county). You must be eligible to vote in Raleigh municipal elections.
• The petitions MUST be signed in ink
• Parts of Raleigh are in Durham County. Those signatures must be gathered on separate forms to be verified by the Durham County Board of Elections. We have separate forms for Wake and Durham Counties below
• No person can sign for another person
• You can download a petition, sign for yourself, then get your family, neighbors and friends to sign as well and send it to us. See below on this page for instructions and forms.
• We will bring petitions to your home if you cannot download and print them. Email us if you want us to come to you.
• Mail completed petitions to us at Livable Raleigh, PO Box 6404, Raleigh, NC 27628-6404
• If you are afraid the mail will be too slow, you can bring the form to us or we can come to you. Email us.
• NOTE – there is not a lot of space on these forms. Remember, when filing in the street address, you DO NOT have to include the City or State. If you need to use 2 lines to fit in your data, go ahead. That’s OK.

Still have questions? Email us.  ([email protected])

30 days isn’t really 30 days.

We have to get the signed petitions to the Board of Elections for verification and then deliver them to the City of Raleigh.

The Board of Elections will need several days to verify the signatures are valid voters.

We need them back from you in our physical possession by June 1st at the latest. Earlier is even better.

The formal date to submit the VERIFIED petitions to the City has now been determined as June 11th.

If you are worried that time is getting short, here are more options other than mail:

• Take them directly to the Wake County Board of Elections. 1200 N. New Hope Road, Raleigh 27610 Mon-Fri  8:30AM – 5PM
• Email us and we will tell you where you can bring them or we can come to you. [email protected]

Locations where you can sign the petition – check back for more locations

• Thu, May 30th, Home of Frank Hielema – Hayes Barton – 4:30PM to 6:30PM
  926 Williamson Dr, Raleigh, NC 27608
• Thu, May 30th, PINTS & POLITICS – Edit Beer Co – 6PM to 9PM
  1911 Sego Ct, Raleigh, NC 27616
• Sat, Jun 1st, North Raleigh – DEJA BREW COFFEE HOUSE – 9AM to 12Noon
  5001 Falls of Neuse Rd, Raleigh, NC 27609

We are not taking a position on how you should vote on either of these issues.

But, we believe the decision does belong to the voters.