One of the many challenges the Pfafftown Steering Committee had to face during the attempt to incorporate was obtaining signatures from 10% of the registered voters. Unfortunately the tax records used to build the petition list were outdated and time was of the essence. Robert Reed, chairman of the steering committee, met these challenges head on.
“The bill was sponsored by Senator Horton and time was critical because of legislative rules and session limitations. One of the hoops we had to go through was getting signatures of at least 10% of the registered voters of the area involved. If we had obtained 19% or more, the bill would have had a better chance of legislative approval but time was critical and we had to cut off the signature gathering so Senator Horton could get the process moving.
I had my 1994 GMC Custom Van parked in the Parking lot about half way to the BP station from the Post Office with large banners on each side asking for signatures on the petition. I had signature binders by street name and after a few days I had almost enough signatures to meet the 20% thresh hold for fast tracking the Bill. That’s when Ham told me to submit what I had since the time for submitting during that legislative session was upon us.
You’ll note on the petition that the tax records weren’t accurate. There were dead people and people that had moved still on the tax rolls. I questioned that with the tax office and they said they would purge names only when notified by a family member of the deceased or the person that had moved. I hope that procedure has changed! If those names had been removed, I probably would have had around 25% of the signatures on the petition. I’m also firmly convinced if we had had more time and organized street or neighborhood captains to go door to door, we would have had close to 75% signatures; maybe even more. The folks in Pfafftown saw the handwriting on the wall and knew they were destined to be annexed by Winston-Salem. As it turned out Winston and Lewisville split the ‘spoils of the incorporation war.’”
Below is a copy of the petition. For best results view in full screen and navigate with the alphabetized bookmarks on the left.
