San Mateo tenant activists submitted more than 11,000 signatures for a rent control initiative, according to Faith In Action's Peninsula housing lead Aracely Mondragon, who helped lead the signature gathering campaign.
This comes just two weeks after a similar action by the Mountain View Tenants Coalition.
With 7,119 verified signatures from San Mateo registered voters needed to qualify for the ballot, the total count leaves some wiggle room to account for invalid signatures. But the submission comes weeks after tenant advocates' declared goal of turning in signatures by early June, leaving some question as to whether signatures will be counted in time to be placed on the November ballot.
"We did our best to collect sufficient signatures and still feel comfortable about being able to qualify for the November ballot," Mondragon said.
The initiative must be certified by the city council and submitted to the San Mateo County Registrar of Voters by Aug. 12 in order to be placed on the November ballot.
The city and San Mateo County are allowed up to 30 business days to count and verify the signatures. A council meeting has been scheduled for Aug. 1 to certify the initiative, meaning the city and county will need to verify the signatures within 23 business days.
"We're pretty confident given the timetable we have that we'll qualify for the November ballot," said Daniel Saver, an attorney with Community Legal Services of East Palo Alto who has assisted the rent control campaign.