McKinney City Secretary Empress Drane certified that a petition turned into her office Jan. 18 had 22,717 valid signatures, according to documents from a March 1 City Council meeting. The petition needed at least 21,847 to call a vote.
The vote will determine whether alcoholic beverages may be legally sold for off-premise consumption in the city of McKinney. If voters favor the law change, stores such as Spec’s and Total Wine could legally come to McKinney.
The petition began in November with representatives from the McKinney Chamber of Commerce spearheading the circulation.
Initially, the plan was to turn in the signatures by Jan. 15, which would allow the city to call a May election after verifying the signatures.
“We had the signatures, but it was kind of close, and with an endeavor this large, we didn't want to do something that we didn't have all the i's dotted all the t's crossed,” chamber President and CEO Lisa Hermes said at a Jan. 18 news conference.
Hermes said that while it would have been nice to have the election earlier in the year, she expects a higher voter turnout because of the number of races happening in November.
“The more people we have coming out to vote, we know the better it could potentially be,” she said.
