An effort to place a $5.5 billion stem cell initiative on the November ballot in California notched another 48,578 signatures this afternoon with only seven business days left until the count must be complete.
The proposed ballot initiative is aimed at saving the state stem cell agency from financial extinction. The 15-year-old program is running out of cash and will begin closing its doors in the fall without more funds.
Last week, the California Stem Cell Report analyzed the trends in the tally, concluding that qualification is in the "virtual bag."
Today's tally from state officials showed 586,136 verified signatures of registered voters, up from Friday's 537,558. The campaign is hoping for 685,534. The qualification rate is steady at about 78 percent. If the qualification rate stays fractionally above 67 percent, the measure will be placed on the ballot.
The measure needs only 99,398 more to hit 685,534. Ten counties have not completed their verification, including San Diego, with 99,899 unverified. Fresno follows with 29,073 and Contra Costa with 23,167. The remaining counties have much smaller numbers of raw signatures.
The state has set June 24 as the deadline for counties to complete their tally. The state's deadline for itself is June 25.
Look for the next update on the count tomorrow evening or early Tuesday on the California Stem Cell Report, your only independent source of information and news about the stem cell agency for the last 15 years.
Look for the next update on the count tomorrow evening or early Tuesday on the California Stem Cell Report, your only independent source of information and news about the stem cell agency for the last 15 years.
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