Michigan: State Supreme Court rules in favor of petition language in State Rep. Inman recall; Missing word not a valid reason to toss out petitions

Big unanimous decision by the Michigan Supreme Court allowing a more lenient standard on recall petition language. The decision overturned lower court rulings, including by the Michigan Court of Appeals, which tossed out the 13,991 signatures looking for the recall of Michigan State Representative Larry C. Inman (R). The petition language was originally approved, but the petitions that were printed out left out the word "right" in the sentence: attempted extortion under color of official right."

Among the key findings of the court:

“The recall petition is proper because the reasons give for recall in the circulated petitions were not different that the reasons that were approved by the Board of Canvassers.”

Petitioners needed 12201 valids to get on the ballot, though an initial review claimed that over 1800 signatures were invalid.

Inman, who is term-limited, was also recently found not guilty by a federal jury found of lying to federal authorities, but were hung on charges of attempted extortion and soliciting a bribe.

Inman was indicted by a federal grand jury over attempted extortion, bribery and lying to the FBI continues, with the House voting 98-8 to call for his resignation. Inman is accused of trying to get a bribe from a union group for a vote to repeal the state's prevailing wage law. He has been prevented from going to his old office, though he is able to go onto the House floor. Inman blamed an opiod addiction.

Colorado: Reversal of fortune as official results show both Elizabeth Trustees removed in recall election

Big reversal of fortune in Elizabeth. While the unofficial results showed that Elizabeth Trustee June Jurczewsky survived her recall vote, the official results show her being ousted.

161 votes called for Jurczewsky's removal (no idea how many voted to retain). Trustee Rachel White was removed with 166 looking to kick her out. White will be replaced by Jason Weiss, who received 153 votes and Jurczewsky was replaced by Ron Weaver, who garnered 152 votes in the separate replacement race. The recall was launched over the Mayor and Councils' support for development proposals.

Recalls against Elizabeth Mayor Megan Vasquez and Trustees Angela Ternus, Steve Gaither, Loren Einspahr, Tammy Payne have made the ballot and should be scheduled for April.  The different time frames is due to the fact that the other officials haven't served six months yet.

California: Second Oceanside City Council member facing recall effort

A second Oceanside City Councilmember, Esther Sanchez, is facing petitions, over her opposition to legalized cannabis (and more generic complaints about her work with her peers). Sanchez (who has been on the council since 2000) faced an effort in 2007 that went nowhere. She has said she is a candidate for mayor position. Petitioners would need 3994 signatures by May 27.

Oceanside City Councilman Christopher Rodriguez (R) is already facing a recall over complaints that he allegedly lied about being a farmer. and his vote to approve a housing development. Petitioners would need 4456 signatures for Rodriguez.

Texas: Signatures handed in against McKinney City Councilman

Signatures have been handed in against Councilman La'Shadion Shemwell who has been a controversial member of the council with complaints of violating ethics codes and making inflammatory statements and getting arrested repeatedly (one seemed to be for domestic violence), which he claimed occurred after he was racially profiled after refusing to sign two citations after he was pulled over for speeding last year. Shemwell has previously declared a "black state of emergency" in Texas.

McKinney approved an amendment to make recalls easier to get on the ballot earlier this year.

Petitioners handed in over 3300 signatures. They need 2127 signatures.

California: Signatures verified against three Westminister officials; Recall still to be scheduled

Westminister Mayor Tri Ta and Councilmembers Kimberly Ho and Chi Charlie Nguyen will all be facing an upcoming recall vote. Petitioners handed in over 11,000 signatures, they needed 8736 (don't yet see how many were validated). The issue is claims of ethical violations, such as limiting debate and participation.

There is also an attempt against the other two members, Tao Do and Sergio Contreas. Do's supporters have backed the recall of the other three and Do welcomed the recall of the other three on Facebook.

The recall will be a special election -- because of the law (the recall must be held between 88 and 125 days after the next council meeting), it cannot coincide with the March primary.

Idaho: Four Priest Lake Library District Board Members up for Recall vote on March 10

Priest Lake Library District Board Members Debbie Sudnikovich, Laurel Smith, Nancy Bushman and Lori McReynolds are facing a March 10 recall vote over their vote to fire the library director. There is also a civil suit against each trustee. The vote will be on the presidential primary date.

Former board member Rosemary Yocum led the recall effort, which claims violations of open meeting laws.

Update: The recall has been pushed off due to late filing until May at the earliest.

Virginia: Newport News Vice Mayor facing petitions

Newport News Vice Mayor Tina Vick is facing petitions, with a reason seeming to be inter-district issues, though there doesn't sound like a specific subject motivating the recall. She has been in the city council since 2008 (and is the aunt of former NFL Quarterback Michael Vick). The article doesn't mention how many signatures are needed. It does explain that petitioners have gotten 200 on change.org, which is equal to zero actual signatures, but it sounds the petitioner will be trying to get actual signatures after Christmas (though it is unclear if he has an actual valid petition).

India: Op-ed calling for adoption of recall in India

Here's an op-ed calling from Pankaj Sharma, a member of the Congress Party, for the adoption of the recall in India. Some interesting history on the debate on whether India should have a recall law:

There is recall law at Panchayat level in some states such as UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, Chhatisgarh, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. This law applies to municipalities and municipal corporations also in some states. But state assemblies and the lower house of Parliament are out of this charter.

In India, the concept has its roots since Vedic times when the lack of effective governance was a cause for removal of a king. The debate over recall of elected representatives has a long history in the Indian democracy; the matter was discussed in detail in the Constituent Assembly also where several members were of the opinion that the Right to Recall must accompany the Right to Elect and the voters must be provided with a remedy 'if things go wrong'. However, Dr B R Ambedkar did not accept this amendment. Some members of the Constituent Assembly argued that the 'Recall' provision would help in strengthening the democratic system, others felt that it would be improper to provide a Recall provision at the infancy of the Indian democracy. Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel expressed his opinion during this debate by saying, "If there are any stray instances or some black sheep who having lost the confidence of their constituency still want to continue to represent the constituency in the House, for some such bad instances we should not disfigure our Constituency. We should leave it as it is, to the good sense of the members concerned". 

In recent times, humanists such as MN Roy and politicians such as Jayaprakash Narayan have spoken extensively on the need to introduce right to recall in our electoral system. When Somnath Chatterjee was Lok Sabha Speaker, he also sought to install the right to recall to ensure accountability. Constitution (Amendment) Bill about Voters' right to recall elected representatives was introduced in Lok Sabha by C K Chandrappan in 1974 and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had supported this but the bill did not pass. A private member bill, The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was introduced by BJP MP Varun Gandhi in Lok Sabha. With the increasing impulse of manipulating democracy for the benefit of certain individuals or political outfits, the urgency of having and enforcing the right to recall must be felt with all its seriousness. If the people have the power to elect their representatives, they should also have the power to dismiss them when they engage in misdeeds or fail to fulfil their duties. In 2001, Madhya Pradesh amended its Panchayat Raj Act and gave voters the right to recall their non-performing elected representatives. The 17-year-old incident of Palavika Patel, the former president of Anuppur municipality in Madhya Pradesh, India and Gray Davis, former governor of California, USA are two distinct fall-outs of participatory democracy. In 2002, voters of extremely poor Anuppur; and in 2003, voters of extremely rich California; exercised a similar constitutional right: the right to recall an elected representative for non-performance. Patel and Davis were removed from their positions.

Texas: Silsbee City Council members facing threats

Silsbee City Council member Sue Bard is facing petitions, with threats to go after the rest of the council. The mayor had already resigned. The petitioner has an online petition that has over 200 signatures, though none count at all. Bard claims that the petition is over the council's refusal to remove a speed hump from the lead petitioners block.

California: Four candidates jump into replacement race for two Santa Cruz Councilmembers

Four candidates have entered the race against Santa Cruz Councilmen Drew Glover and Chris Krohn, which is set to be on the March 3 primary ballot. Three of the candidates, Katherine Beiers, Don Lane and Tim Fitzmaurice, are former mayors

The issue is over allegations of a focus on a homeless camp and issues at city meetings, though articles have noted a focus on the city's rent control and eviction ballot measures. Petitioners handed in over 11,000 signatures and needed at least 7938.

Petitioners have spent at least $50,000 in the recall fight.

Taiwan: Signatures to be handed in against Kaohsiung Mayor/Kuomintang Presidential candidate

300,000 signatures are set to be handed in against Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yuto, with the petitions being handed in one day after the one year grace period from the beginning of his term. Petitioners seem to need about 228,000 -- 10% of city inhabitants.

Han is also the Kuomintang Presidential candidate, and is being threatened with a recall following flooding in the town (though presumably this may be part of the presidential political wrangling). There is an absentee voter provision -- 25% of eligible voters must cast ballots for the recall to count.

Colorado: Lawsuit trying to force a special election recall in Nederland rejected; Election scheduled for same time as next town election date

A Judge has rejected a suit trying to force a special election against Nederland Mayor Kristopher Larson and Trustees Dallas Masters and Julie Gustafson rather than having the recall scheduled for April 7 (the town's next election date). The Judge held that the plaintiffs did not allege an injury.

The recalls are over claims of "dereliction of duty." A regular town critic who is actually lives outside the town is one of the leaders of the effort. The complaints seems to be a kitchen sink effort, including complaints about Nederland's growth and lifting a moratorium on cannabis dispensaries.

Trustee James Rawsthorne resigned, complaining about the same issues that petitioners are using to target the three officials.

North Dakota: Ramsey County State Attorney facing petitions

Signatures are being collected looking for the recall of Ramsey County State Attorney Kari Agotness after she did not press charges against a police officer who shot and killed a local man. The family of the man who was killed is leading the recall effort. Petitioners need approximately 1300 signatures in a year to get on the ballot.

Nevada: Settlement in Storey Sheriff Sexual Harassment case

The former Chief Deputy Sheriff Melanie Keener has received a $250,000 settlement over her claims that she was sexually harassed by Sheriff Gerald Antinoro.

Antinoro survived a recall vote (883-601) over accusations of sexual harassment, wrongful termination and budget improprieties.

Michigan: State Court of Appeals upholds ruling tossing out signatures in recall of State Representative

A Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld (by 2-1 vote) the Elections Director decision tossing out the 13,991 signatures looking for the recall of Michigan State Representative Larry C. Inman (R). The petition language was originally approved, but the petitions that were printed out left out the word "right" in the sentence: attempted extortion under color of official right." Petitioners needed 12201 valids to get on the ballot.

Inman was also recently found not guilty by a federal jury found of lying to federal authorities, but were hung on charges of attempted extortion and soliciting a bribe.

Inman was indicted by a federal grand jury over attempted extortion, bribery and lying to the FBI continues, with the House voting 98-8 to call for his resignation. Inman is accused of trying to get a bribe from a union group for a vote to repeal the state's prevailing wage law. He has been prevented from going to his old office, though he is able to go onto the House floor. Inman blamed an opiod addiction.

Arizona: Payson recall efforts all fail

The recall effort against Payson Mayor Tom Morrisey and Councilmembers Suzy Tubbs-Avakian, Janell Sterner, Jim Ferris, Steve Smith, Barbara Underwood and Chris Higgins have all failed, with petitioners not handing in signatures or collecting them. The issue was over votes to  fire a town manager and spend and transparency issues.

This long running saga came about after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the recall attempt against Payson Mayor Tom Morrissey needs more signatures than previously thought, resulting in the recall now being off the ballot.

Petitioners handed in 974 signatures, 821 valids, and thought they needed 770. The Judge ruled that they need 1225.

The issue is based on the fact that Payson mayors have been effectively elected in the primary race for the last 17 years. The general election date will only take place if there was a runoff from the primary race.. The recall law requires 25% of turnout at the last election for that office. Morrissey claims that they should use the primary race. We should be seeing a written opinion on this.

Petitioners need 1638 signatures to get the other three recalls on the ballot. Petitioners claimed they had over 900 signatures for Ferris, Sterner and Tubbs-Avakia ans a separate campaign against Steve Smith claimed that they had 1700 signatures.

Florida: Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District Board of Commissioners facing recall threats over salary raise

The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District Board of Commissioners are facing threats of a recall over an upcoming vote for salary raise. The Lehigh Acres Community Council President is threatening a recall if the salary raise is approved.

 

New Jersey: Signatures handed in against Englewood Cliffs Councilmembers

In a comment below, someone is claiming that petitioners have handed in over 1200 signatures for the recall of Englewood Cliffs Council members Edward Aversa (D) and Gloria Oh (D) over claims that they didn't do due diligence on affordable housing and other issues related to development. Aversa, who is running for mayor in the fall, claims that Mayor Mario Kranjac (who is also on the ballot) is behind the recall.

Petitioners would need more than 900 valid signatures (25% of registereds).

Florida: Hialeah Mayor Recall effort fails

The recall effort against Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez failed, with no signatures handed in. Petitioners needed 5175 valids and they claimed to have gotten 4900.

The recall was over general claims of mismanagement. The lead petitioner is former City Council candidate Fernando Godo, though Hernandez claims that former Mayor Julio Martinez is leading the effort (Hernandez beat Martinez in 2013).

Washington: Petitions filed against Attorney General

Petitions have been filed against Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) over his support of gun control legislation. Since Washington is a malfeasance standard state, there is a very high bar to get on the ballot as the Supreme Court must rule that the AG violated a specific set of laws. An attempt to recall Governor Jay Inslee ((D) earlier this year failed.