Idaho: Bonner County Clerk facing criminal charges over actions in failed school board recall

Bonner County Clerk Ann Dutson-Sater and Deputy Clerk Charles Konrad Wurm are facing criminal charges over what is believed to be their actions in the failed recall of Lake Pend Oreille School board member Steve Youngdahl.

Dutson-Sater said in an email that she allowed a recall backer to sign off on the petitions "without realizing that he wasn't the one who gathered all the signatures," indicating that the oversight was an error rather than an attempt to subvert the law.Dutson-Sater believes the investigation began when Youngdahl's supporters pushed for charges against one of the recall's architects.

The clerk's office certified last year that recall backers had obtained the necessary amount of signatures to trigger the election. But the Idaho Secretary of State's Office later ruled that the signatures had to be submitted all at once rather than in stages, which derailed the recall.