Cecil Field Petition Drive Signature Deadline Moved Up to Sunday at 6 p.m.

The VoteJacksonville.com Coalition today announced that 6 p.m. Sunday is the new deadline to deliver signatures to the Supervisor of Elections Office to put the question of returning the Navy Master Jet Base to Cecil Field on the September primary ballot.

The announcement comes as the petition drive added more than four thousand signatures to its total -- bringing the raw number of signatures collected to more than 24-thousand. The petition drive aims to collect nearly 24-thousand validated signatures from registered voters by tomorrow evening to put the question of returning Cecil Field to the Navy before voters in September.

"We are literally on the final approach to bringing this effort to give voters a voice on the Cecil Field question in for a successful landing and the next 24 hours are critical to get this issue on the September ballot," said Ken Underwood, founder of the VoteJacksonville.com effort that has brought this issue to the forefront. "We are intensely focused on gaining the number of valid signatures to put this on the September ballot. We will have teams all across Jacksonville today working to make this vote to strengthen Jacksonville's economy and our nation's defense a reality."

To validate the signatures, instead of examining each individual signature, VoteJacksonville.com says the Supervisor of Elections' office will switch to a process to verify signatures by a check of random sample.

Under this system, the Supervisor of Elections will take a random sample of the signatures turned in, determine the validation rate of that sample and then apply the rate to the total amount of signatures turned in.

For example, if a random sample of one-thousand signatures shows that 700 are valid then the 70 percent rate would be applied to the total number of signatures turned in. If that number reaches 23,287, the question will go on the September primary ballot.

"We are grateful to our grassroots workers and everyone at the Supervisor of Elections Office who are sacrificing their weekend so the people who want the voters to speak on this question will be heard," Underwood added.

Voters are encouraged to look for VoteJacksonville.com workers throughout the city this weekend, sign the petition and raise their voice in the effort to let the voters have a say on the Cecil Field issue. Voters also can stop by the VoteJacksonville.com offices to join the effort at:

The VoteJacksonville.com Coalition Offices are located at:

* UNF Area (Wingate Inn): 4791 Windsor Common Court (J. Turner Boulevard

and Hodges, behind Ruby Tuesday)

* Westside Location: North of NAS Jacksonville (in front of Zaxby's)

Voters interested in signing a petition and getting involved are encouraged to stop by the offices.