A proposed initiative that would let voters decide whether to eliminate the tipped wage in D.C. remains in limbo as election officials scramble to check whether it will qualify for the June 21 ballot. The initiative’s fate hangs on the signatures of just over 120 voters in a single ward.

The unexpected and densely technical drama played out over the course of Thursday, when the D.C. Board of Elections was scheduled to issue a simple ruling on whether the D.C. Committee to Build a Better Restaurant Industry collected signatures from at least 5% of registered voters citywide and from 5% of voters in five of the city’s eight wards — the legal requirement to place any initiative on the ballot.

If approved by voters, what’s come to be known as Initiative 82 would phase out the sub-minimum wage of $5.05 paid to tipped workers in restaurants, nail salons, and parking lots, and instead require employers to pay them the prevailing minimum wage, currently $15.20 an hour.

The board was quickly able to determine on Thursday morning that the initiative’s proponents had met the 5% threshold for signatures from registered voters across the city.

But when it came to signatures gathered from voters in the wards, they were only meeting that same threshold in three — 1, 3, and 4 — with two remaining inconclusive. Later in the afternoon, officials determined a fourth ward, Ward 2, qualified, but by evening board members said an analysis of a sample of voter signatures from Ward 6 had not returned a definitive answer as to whether 5% of voters signed the petition to put Initiative 82 on the ballot.

“We’ve wanted to see a definitive answer,” said board chairman Gary Thompson, sounding both exasperated and mildly entertained at how an otherwise ministerial act had gotten so complicated. “It’s apparently so close, that no matter how many times they dip into the wells they cannot get to a [high] confidence level, it’s still coming back undecided.”

By the end of the evening’s meeting — the third of the day — the elections board announced in would review all 4,656 signatures the proponents submitted from voters in Ward 6, instead of just another sample. Of that number, at least 4,534 will have to be declared valid — in that the signer is a registered voter in the ward and entered their information correctly — to be able to hit the last threshold needed to get Initiative 82 on the ballot.

That means the initiative’s fate could be decided by 122 signatures from voters in Ward 6. The initiative’s proponents submitted more than 33,000 signatures, of which 26,935 were initially accepted by the elections board.

It remains unclear how long the review process will take, but officials conceded they want to have it done sooner rather than later because of impending deadlines to finalize, print, and mail out ballots ahead of the June 21 election.

Thursday’s technical drama was but a continuation of what’s been a years-long and hotly contested fight over the fate of the tipped wage in D.C.

Initiative 82 largely revisits a similar ballot measure, Initiative 77, that D.C. voters approved in 2018 but which was later overturned by the D.C. Council, largely at the behest of restaurant owners and some workers who argued that voters did not understand what they were weighing in on.

Proponents say that eliminating the tipped wage will provide more stability to employees who rely on tips from customers, while critics say that collecting tips allows them to make more than the city’s minimum wage. This round of the debate also comes as D.C.’s hospitality industry struggles to emerge from the pandemic, which hammered bars and restaurants.

Opposition to Initiative 82 has been more muted than it was for Initiative 77, and many lawmakers have already said that if voters approve it in June they will let it stand. Still, over the last month some restaurant owners and the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington started getting more organized. Valerie Graham, a local bartender who was involved in fighting Initiative 77, has gotten back into the battle, filing her own challenge of some of the signatures submitted by the initiative’s proponents. The elections board will hear that challenge on Monday.

Graham’s attorney — who works for Veritas, the law firm that largely represents restaurant owners — separately sent the elections board a letter on Thursday laying out other procedural complaints, raising the possibility that the fight over whether Initiative 82 can get on the ballot could soon jump to the courts. Ryan O’Leary, the initiative’s proponent, said much the same.

“This has not changed my confidence that we have far more than enough valid signatures,” he said, referring to the events that unfolded on Thursday. “If there are any hiccups, we will fight this in the courts.”