Florida: Coral Gables mayoral recall signatures falls short though petitioners claim a signature sabotage effort

The recall effort against Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago failed in the first round, though petitioners are claiming about an interesting "sabotage."

The petition is just for first round of signatures. Petitioners would have needed another 5000 to get through to the ballot.

Petitioners handed in 1719 handed in and they need 1649 (5% of the registered voters). 1533 were validated. There seems to be a number of duplicates which (according to the article), results in both signatures getting thrown out. One of the duplicates was the lead petitioner, which is a bit odd. The petitioners claim that there was a concerted effort to duplicate signatures.

The recall is over the firing of the City Manager and complaints by a commissioner of a "cesspool of public corruption." Lago opposed the ouster of the City Manager. An election last year of two opposition Commissioners has put Lago on the outs with the majority of the commission.

Lago has been the subject of Miami Herald investigative pieces of his ties to a developer who is the subject of federal investigations.