Oregon: Baker School Board members consider suit against recall petitioner for cost of election

Following the Baker School Board members recall in which the board chair Lynne Burroughs and member Mark Henderson both survived the vote, the school board is now considering a lawsuit to sue the petitioner to collect $10,000 for the cost of the recall. This suit sounds like a guaranteed loser.

The board claims that the petitioner claimed false reasons in her recall statement on the ballot.

The state statute deals with a candidate or political committee publishing falsities “with knowledge or with reckless disregard” according to the first subsection of the statute.

“Any candidate or political committee aggrieved by a violation of this section shall have a right of action against the person alleged to have committed the violation,” the law states in subsection 5.

The district has 30 days after the election to take action, the statute stipulates.