Amazon Ballot Initiative Gathers 4,300 Signatures But Falls Short

Saturday, 11 July 2026, 12:04 am Kym Kemp One comment

Amazon logo superimposed on an artist’s perspective of the Amazon site.

Press release from Indivisible Trinidad:

Organizers of a citizen-led ballot initiative opposing Amazon’s proposed warehouse and distribution center in McKinleyville announced [yesterday] that the measure will not appear on the November ballot.

Despite an outpouring of community support, the petition drive by the group Save Our Coast did not collect enough verified signatures to meet the state-mandated threshold in time for submission. Canvassers collected more than 4,300 voter signatures in 10 days, but ran out of time to reach the required 4,864 signatures in time for them to be verified.

The County Elections Office would have had to verify the signatures and send the measure to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors for approval by Aug. 7 to qualify for the November ballot, but the Board does not meet from July 14 through Aug. 11.

Organizer Tina Freeland said she was gratified by the enthusiastic support for the initiative, which would have restricted the size of warehouse facilities within the Coastal Zone. “We understood from the first that time was short to secure the required signatures,” Freeland said, “but well over 4,000 signatures were collected in a 10-day period. That should send a message to Amazon and the County.”

Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors also considered Save Our Coast’s request to place the question on the ballot, but the Board determined that it could not, citing time constraints and differences in requirements between government-initiated action and a citizen-led initiative.

“When we could see that we were not going to meet the goal, we decided to ask the Board to adopt the initiative under their authority, but it couldn’t be done,” Freeland said.

Freeland urges residents to tune in to the Humboldt County Planning & Building Department’s virtual public scoping meeting on Tuesday, July 14, at 6 p.m. to discuss the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the proposed 40,290-square-foot Amazon Distribution Facility. Visit https://humboldtgov.org/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/6265 for details.

She also urges written comments, which become part of the public record, be sent to Senior Planner Steve Lazar by July 29 at 5 p.m.: Humboldt County Planning & Building Department, 3015 H St., Eureka, CA 95501 or by email to [email protected].