Greeley Voters Came Through Once Again
Greeley Demands Better meets the five-day deadline with an additional 501 signatures surpassing the curated signature count to fulfill their petition requirement.
Greeley, Colo. (November 3, 2025)
On Monday, November 3, 2025, Greeley Demands Better submitted 501 new and cured petition signatures – the vast majority volunteer obtained – to the Greeley City Clerk. This far surpasses the 32-signature requirement needed to fulfill the petition’s validity within the five-day legal timeframe.
On Wednesday evening, October 29, 2025, the Greeley City Clerk determined that the number of petition signatures submitted by the grassroots citizen initiative, Greeley Demands Better (GDB) was “insufficient” by 32 signatures. Many of the 4,000+ signatures were rejected for trivial matters, including street names without the road suffixes (Blvd, Drive, Avenue, etc.), addresses missing an apartment number, and the like, contrary to Secretary of State standards and procedures.
“Greeley officials have continuously put their thumb on the scales in opposition to their own citizens, and Wednesday’s declaration of deficiency was just the latest example,” observed Greeley Demands Better attorney Suzanne Taheri. “State standards and jurisprudence in reviewing petition signatures is clear. Colorado courts recognize the right to petition on the same footing as the right to vote. This is why courts apply a standard of substantial compliance to avoid disenfranchising voters. In contrast, the clerk applied a standard of strict compliance disqualifying and disenfranchising voters for every technical foul she could find down to incomplete apartment numbers or street designations. Imagine if a clerk did this with ballots and started disenfranchising voters for such trivial things. Thankfully, she won’t be running the election.”
GDB had five days to cure the signatures with a deadline of today, November 3, 2025. Signatures could be cured in one of two ways – collecting additional signatures or correcting the signatures in question. Curiously, after notifying GDB of their two curing options, the city clerk took nearly 24 hours to provide the line-item detail of the insufficient signature list. This left GDB limited to only one option to cure signatures during that timeframe - collecting additional signatures.
“At this point, we expect the city to make this entire process difficult,” said, Taheri. “Sadly, actions like this one from the city match the long list of questionable acts that have continued since we made Greeley residents aware of this project being pushed through without their vote. It’s clear the city has chosen to do everything in its power to throw out the will of its own citizens.”
This ‘veto referendum’ petition began in mid-October when Greeley Demands Better submitted 7,739 signatures to give residents a vote on the zoning of the $1.1 billion Cascadia/Catalyst hockey arena and entertainment district. Only 4,586 valid signatures were needed, according to the city, but the city rejected 41% of the signatures submitted for the petition. Of note, the standard rejection rate in municipal and statewide petition efforts is 20%.
Once the signatures are approved for this petition, the project is frozen in its tracks. Zoning for the Cascadia/Catalyst project is halted until there is a vote of the people. The project’s financing terms include mortgaging many of the Greeley City properties, such as City Hall, bus facilities, recreation center, police buildings and fire facilities.
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About Greeley Demands Better
The “Greeley Demands Better” campaign is a grassroots citizen initiative seeking to repeal the zoning for the “Bad Cascadia Deal” and ensure responsible fiscal management of taxpayer dollars. The initiative process is 100% Greeley-driven, co-chaired by Greeley resident Brandon Wark, and Rhonda Solis, former Colorado's 8th Congressional District Board of Education member, Greeley-Evans school board member, and long-time Greeley resident.
For more information, visit GreeleyDemandsBetter.com or follow the campaign on social media.