Ground Game Texas and the local grassroots organization Mano Amiga announced on March 1 that they succeeded in collecting enough signatures to secure the vote to decriminalize marijuana in San Marcos on the November ballot. Their victory comes after months of collecting signatures across San Marcos.
According to organizers, over 4,600 individual valid signatures have been verified. The City Charter only requires 4,182, which is equivalent to 10% of the number of registered voters in San Marcos.
The decision is now in the hands of City Council, who will vote on whether to include it on the ballot in the upcoming election. In a press release from Mano Amiga, Councilmember Alyssa Garza expressed her support for the local activism.
“Clearly, a substantial portion of the San Marcos electorate has spoken, and it is now the duty of City Council to afford voters the opportunity to approve it at the ballot box in November,” Garza said. “This is true democracy from the ground up, and I’m here for it.”
Samantha Benavides, communications director at Mano Amiga, said securing the number of signatures means more than half the work is complete. Mano Amiga’s next focus is to encourage people to vote during the November election.
“It’s so important to get people out to vote in the November election,” Benavides said. “When we were collecting signatures on campus, we were also registering people to vote, and we registered over 500 people in just one month.”
Benavides believes having this item on the ballot will not only increase civic engagement, but bring justice to the system that negatively impacts many citizens, including herself.
“I come from a low-income household, and my dad is someone who was in an out of legal system pretty much my whole life,” Benavides said. “I know firsthand how having any kind of charge on your record, even a really petty one, can have so many implications for so many people.”
The passing of this item would end citations and arrests for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, ultimately eliminating low-level marijuana restrictions.