State law sets out two methods to incorporate, both by petition.
If 10 percent of the registered voters sign on the dotted line, there's an election, as we'll see in November in Casas Adobes and the Catalina Foothills. But if two-thirds of the voters sign petitions, their community automatically becomes a town. Tortolita took the hard way. Knock off the sludge everybody knows remains on the voter rolls, and that 72 percent pushes 90 percent. We could've gotten more if needed from folks on vacation or by camping on some more doorsteps.