Ballotpedia's Mid-Year Recall Report (2017)

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Recall elections in 2017: Mid-year report
Statistics
178 targeted officials 134 separate recall efforts
Notable recalls
Arizona Michigan Providence, Rhode Island Montebello, California Homer, Alaska

June 19, 2017 (updated September 17, 2024)
By Ballotpedia staff

Voters in 36 states have the power to recall elected officials, bringing an early end to their term in office. Between January 1, 2017, and June 19, 2017, 134 recall efforts were initiated against 178 officials in 31 states. This was a decrease in recall frequency since our 2016 mid-year report, which counted 189 recall efforts, but it is more than the 97 recalls tracked in our 2015 mid-year report. This puts 2017 on track to surpass 2014's 223 total recall efforts. Ballotpedia found that of the officials targeted for recall in 2017, 10.7 percent have been removed from office so far. This number is similar to the 10.9 percent recall rate in our 2016 mid-year report, but it is larger than the 6.6 percent figure in our 2015 mid-year report.

In the first half of 2017, 2.2 percent of recall efforts targeted state officials, compared to 1.4 percent in the first half of 2016 and 10.2 percent in the first half of 2015. Notable among these are Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), targeted for recall over his signature on bills related to education and signature gathering on petitions, and Michigan state Sen. Bert Johnson (D), accused of hiring a fake employee to pay off a personal debt.

City council members were the target of 41 percent of recall efforts, an increase from 34.9 percent in the first half of 2016 and 7.3 percent in the first half of 2015. These include Providence Councilman Kevin Jackson in Rhode Island, who was recalled over embezzlement allegations, and three members of the city council of Homer, Alaska, who were targeted for recall after issuing formal resolutions supportive of cities in opposition to federal immigration law and critical of the Dakota Access Pipeline and President Donald Trump (R).

As in previous years, California was the state with the most officials targeted for recall. By June 19, 2017, Californians had initiated recall proceedings against 50 elected officials. This compares to 20 officials targeted in Colorado and 11 in Michigan, the next-highest states.

Although the specifics of the recall process—which officials can be recalled and for what reasons—vary from state to state, the general procedure is similar in all 36 states that allow for recalls. Citizens unhappy with the elected official collect signatures on a petition for recall. A petition with enough signatures allows the recall to be brought before the electorate. Depending on the state, this may take the form of a special election between the recalled official and an alternative candidate or as a yes/no vote on whether the official should be recalled. In states that use the latter method, the vacancy caused by a successful recall is either filled by a separate special election or by the direct appointment of a new officeholder. Virginia is an exception; rather than trigger a special election, recall petitions with enough signatures in that state lead to a hearing before a state circuit court on whether the official should be allowed to stay in office.

What exactly happens in a recall election? Staff Writer Elisabeth Moore gives a 2-minute overview, including what it means and which officials can be recalled View other episodes here.

Statistics

Note: Percentages below may total to more than 100 percent due to rounding.

From January 1, 2017, to June 19, 2017, Ballotpedia covered a total of 134 recall efforts against 178 officials. Efforts against 90 of those officials are still ongoing. Recall attempts targeting 42 officials did not make it to the ballot (marked "Unsuccessful" on chart). Of the 31 officials whose recalls made it to the ballot, 19 were recalled and 12 survived the attempt. Ten other officials resigned before their recalls could go to a vote. Recall efforts against two politicians remain unofficial, two officials have a recall election scheduled for the future, and one targeted official had their recall effort decided by a court order. A breakdown of the various recall outcomes is displayed in the chart below.

City council officials drew the focus of more recall petitions than any other group in the first half of 2017. A total of 73 city council members faced recall campaigns while mayors faced the second-most with 32. Recalls were also sought for 27 school board leaders. Petitioners also targeted state-level officials, filing against three state legislators and one state executive. A breakdown of the various recall targets is displayed in the chart below.

Targets by state

California led the way in officials targeted for recall with 50 through June 19, 2017. Colorado followed with 20 officials facing recall. The map below displays the number of officials targeted for recall in each state, with darker shades representing higher numbers.

Notable recalls

Doug Ducey recall, Governor of Arizona

Gov. Doug Ducey (R)

See also: Doug Ducey recall, Governor of Arizona (2017)

Governor Doug Ducey (R) was the target of a recall attempt in 2017 following his signature of two bills. The first, Senate Bill 1431, was signed by Ducey on April 6, 2017, and was an expansion of Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts educational voucher program. Students who qualify for the program have the option to receive funding equal to 90 percent of their public school's per-pupil funding to attend private school. The other bill, House Bill 2404, was signed by Ducey on March 23, 2017. This bill made it illegal to pay activists who gather signatures for ballot initiatives per signature.

Following Governor Ducey's signing of these bills, activist Leonard Clark founded the Con of Cons Doug Ducey AZ Gov. Recall Committee and filed paperwork to initiate a recall of the governor on April 7, 2017. The committee must collect 376,604 signatures before August 5, 2017, in order to proceed with the recall. In 2015, an unofficial recall petition targeting Ducey received 15,314 signatures.

Bert Johnson recall, Michigan State Senate

See also: Bert Johnson recall, Michigan State Senate (2017)

Sen. Bert Johnson (D)

A recall effort targeting Michigan state Sen. Bert Johnson (D) is underway due to his federal grand jury indictment in April 2017 on conspiracy and theft charges. The initiator of the recall, Robert Davis, said that Johnson's indictment was what led him to file recall paperwork with the Michigan Secretary of State's office. "I think that at this critical time, while he’s undergoing this process, the citizens of his senatorial district should have an option to decide what they want to do," said Davis. Johnson allegedly hired a fake employee to his state senate payroll in order to repay a loan. He borrowed over $10,000 in October 2013 from an unnamed co-conspirator and later hired that person to his payroll to repay the debt. The fake employee was paid $23,134.

Johnson denied the allegations and stated that he would fight the charges in court. If convicted, Johnson could serve up to five years on the conspiracy charge and up to 10 years on the theft charge. Johnson's trial is scheduled to begin on August 22, 2017. For a recall of Johnson to be placed on the ballot, supporters of the recall would need to gather 14,474 signatures within a 60-day period. Recall supporters have until October 23, 2017, or 180 days to turn in signatures for the recall to go forward.

Kevin Jackson recall, Providence City Council, Rhode Island

Former Providence City Councilman Kevin Jackson (D)

See also: Kevin Jackson recall, Providence, Rhode Island (2017)

Providence Councilman Kevin Jackson (D) was recalled from office on May 2, 2017, after a six-month effort to bring the effort to the ballot. Jackson was targeted by city resident Tricia Kammerer after his July 2016 indictment for embezzling $127,153 from a youth sports team partially funded by public donations. According to the indictment, Jackson used the funds to finance his 2014 re-election campaign, which he won by 55 votes over write-in candidate Marcus Mitchell. Kammerer initiated the recall in September 2016 and the city council scheduled an election on March 13, 2017.

Jackson, who first joined the council in 1994, resigned as council majority leader but remained a member. He argued his innocence throughout the recall process and suggested that the recall effort was based on politics rather than the indictment. Jackson later filed appeals to block the recall, which included an October 2016 appeal in Rhode Island Superior Court and an April 2017 appeal to the Rhode Island Board of Elections. Both appeals were rejected and 91.8 percent of voters in the special election voted to recall Jackson.

Lani Cupchoy and Benjamin Cardenas recall, Montebello Unified School District, California

See also: Lani Cupchoy and Benjamin Cardenas recall, Montebello Unified School District, California (2017)

Benjamin Cardenas

Lani Cupchoy

Petitions to recall Lani Cupchoy and Benjamin Cardenas from their positions on the Montebello Unified School District Board of Education in California were approved for circulation in April 2017. The petitions accused the members of misusing their positions and district funds. Cupchoy said the district's financial situation was an inherited problem.

The California State Legislature Audit Committee approved a state audit of Montebello Unified in March 2017. The move came after more than six months of discord and negotiation between the board, the local teacher's union, district administrators, students, and community members.

Mandated cuts of $17 million for the 2017-2018 school year led the board to lay off hundreds of employees in 2017. Most of the layoffs were rescinded, but the approach to some of the layoffs led to a lawsuit from the Montebello Teachers Association.

The board fired Superintendent Susanna Contreras Smith and the district's chief financial and operations officer, Cleve Pell, in November 2016. Four months later, the district's chief business officer, Ruben Rojas, who had been been put in charge of Pell's former responsibilities, was also fired.

Homer City Council recall, Alaska

See also: City council recall, Homer, Alaska (2017)

Three members of the Homer City Council survived a recall election on June 13, 2017, initiated because of their support for resolutions on the Dakota Access Pipeline and sanctuary policies. Donna Aderhold, David Lewis, and Catriona Reynolds voted with Mayor Bryan Zak to approve a resolution on November 21, 2016, that opposed development of the nearby Dakota Access Pipeline because of potential damage to Standing Rock Sioux tribal land. Aderhold, Lewis, and Reynolds also worked on a resolution critical of President Donald Trump (R) and supportive of sanctuary policies. Michael Fell and Heartbeat of Homer initiated the recall effort on March 6, 2017, arguing that the actions of the council members constituted misconduct and a lack of fitness for office. Homer Citizens Against the Recall argued that the recall was based on actions that were not illegal or inappropriate.

The Homer City Council initially voted in April 2017 to schedule the recall, but a legal challenge placed the election in limbo. The ACLU of Alaska filed a lawsuit on behalf of the council members on April 24, 2017, citing the recall's potential harm to their rights to free speech. Superior Court Judge Erin Marston ruled against the ACLU's motion on May 23, 2017, which allowed for the recall to be held in June. Marston concluded that public officials cannot use free speech rights to prevent recall efforts by city residents.

See also

• Recall overview
• Political recall efforts
• Political recall efforts, 2017
• Laws governing recall

Footnotes

Political recall elections

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Recall
laws

Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • District of Columbia • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Kansas • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Rhode Island • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming • States that require grounds for recalls • States that have pre-petition signature requirements for recalls