Recall

A University of Wisconsin-Platteville engineering student anticipating a new seat on the UW System’s Board of Regents was renounced at the eleventh hour by Gov. Scott Walker, who withdrew the young man’s appointment after finding out he had signed a petition as an 18-year-old freshman calling for the governor’s recall.

Joshua Inglett, who finished his sophomore year last month, said an aide to Walker asked him Wednesday evening whether he had signed the recall petition. He told him he had, and within hours another Walker aide left him a voice mail that made it clear to Inglett he wouldn’t get the position.

A second state lawmaker is staring down the barrel of a recall election after proponents turned in about 2,300 more signatures than needed to oust Democratic Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo over her support for gun control.

Whether the trigger is pulled on the recall election depends on if the secretary of state’s office validates the 13,570 signatures submitted by proponents on Monday. They need 11,285 valid signatures, which represents 25 percent of the votes cast for Giron’s seat in 2010. The secretary’s office has 15 days to validate. There is then a 15-day appeal period and stakeholders can also petition the courts.

Targeted Senate President Appears Vulnerable

Pro-Second Amendment activists in Colorado recently turned in 16,199 signatures in an effort to recall State Senate President John Morse, who helped pass three gun control bills earlier this year. Of that total, only 7,178 valid signatures are required to force a recall election.

Due to the narrow margin of Sen. Morse’s election victory in 2010 – he won by less than 350 votes and only 48 percent of the total – backers of Morse recognize he may have a difficult time winning a recall election.

Senate President John Morse remains adamant he will charge forward into what could be the first recall election of a state lawmaker in Colorado history, though organizers in support of the Colorado Springs lawmaker are weighing all their options ”” including the possibility of Morse stepping down ”” before any election date is set.

“Decisions are happening nonstop in a recall,” said Kjersten Forseth, a consultant to A Whole Lot of People for John Morse, who notes that resignation is an option, though it’s not a focus at this point. “As a team, we’re always re-evaluating where we are on a daily basis. It’s not something you can map out like in a normal campaign.”

If you want to know the definition of grassroots, don’t ask the folks attempting to recall Senate President or his supporters who want the recall to fail.

They have widely different opinions on what is a grassroots movement as evidenced by their statements this week when recall signatures were turned into the secretary of state. Recall backers collected twice as many signatures as needed to force a special election.

A Democratic state senator who backed a package of gun control measures will find out soon if he will face a recall election.

Opponents of Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs turned in 16,046 petition signatures to state officials Monday in an effort to force a new election. They need 7,178 signatures to force a recall election. The Colorado Secretary of State has 15 business days to verify signatures.

Morse vowed to fight the recall effort, saying he doubted opponents have raised 16,000 valid petition signatures.

Read More: here

A recall effort against Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio went down in flames Thursday. Leaders of the group, Respect Arizona and Citizens for a Better Arizona did not collect the necessary number of signatures to force a recall election, the Los Angeles Times reported.

They needed 335,000 by 5 p.m.

Citizens for a Better Arizona President Randy Parraz said the two groups only got 300,000, United Press International reported.

The failure was not much of a surprise. Early Thursday morning, group members were suggesting in various media reports that they weren’t going to meet the recall requirements.

Lassen County Clerk Julie Bustamante announced Friday that petitioners seeking to oust Lassen Supervisor Jack Hanson from office have collected enough valid signatures to allow a

The effort to recall Sherriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, has hit a brick wall … again.  On April 22, Respect Arizona, the group sponsoring the recall effort reportedly had more than 200,000 signatures, but was well short of the 335,000 needed by May 30. 

Last week, with the coffers of the campaign apparently dry, a message was sent out to halt the paid portion of their canvassing effort. This means that only volunteer petitioners are still collecting signatures, which makes gathering the additional signatures required – almost 10,000 a day for the remaining two weeks – all but out of reach.

The roller-coaster campaign to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio took another dive today. With just two weeks left before the recall’s May 30 deadline, the on-again, off-again paid effort to gather signatures is off again.

This afternoon, I was forwarded a text message sent out to paid canvassers by Sign Here Petitions, informing them that the recall Arpaio committee Respect Arizona had “shut off” the paid drive. They were ordered to stop collecting signatures and turn in their petitions Friday.

Recall Arizona campaign manager Lilia Alvarez confirmed that this was the case. She explained that Recall Arizona had been in negotiations for more funds to keep the paid drive alive, but the funds did not materialize.

A senate panel voted Wednesday to throw some additional hurdles in the path of Arizonans who want to write their own laws.

Existing law already has a set of requirements for putting a measure on the ballot to propose a new statute or constitutional amendment. These include for who can circulate petitions, what has to be on each page and how many names can be on each sheet.

Arizona is trying to sneak one in on us! Just this week – a full month after the legislature’s target date for adjourning this year’s session – a new bill has been introduced, Senate Bill 1493, which tosses caltrops in the path of citizens petitioning for initiatives, referendums or recalls.

A group trying to oust Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is again paying professionals to gather signatures from voters in a bid to force a recall election against the lawman.

Fundraising difficulties had prompted the group to stop using paid signature gatherers nearly two months ago and instead rely on only volunteers.

But recall organizer Lilia Alvarez says the paid signature gatherers resumed their work for her group Wednesday after contributors followed through on pledges to donate money.

Read More: Here

Due to the recent arrests and indictments of a handful of New York state elected officials, Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, has proposed a bill (A.6161) that would amend the state Constitution to give voters the ability to remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has expired.

Creating recall elections for state legislators in New York state is a horrible idea.

The idea has been proposed by Republican members of the state Assembly, who say recall elections have been shown to work in 19 other states. States with recall elections have removed more than a dozen state legislators in 36 separate recall elections. Supporters say a recall election for state legislators will give power back to the voters by giving them a way to get rid of corrupt politicians.