Deandre Barnes and Mark Whitaker recall, Portsmouth, Virginia (2022-2024)

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Deandre Barnes and Mark Whitaker recall
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Officeholders
Deandre Barnes
Mark Whitaker
Recall status
Did not go to a vote
Signature requirement
10% of district voters from previous election
See also
Recall overview
Political recall efforts, 2024
Recalls in Virginia
Virginia recall laws
City council recalls
Recall reports

An effort to recall City Councilmembers Deandre Barnes and Mark Whitaker did not go to a vote in Portsmouth, Virginia. Barnes and Whitaker were defeated in the regular general election for city council on November 5, 2024.[1][2]

Recall supporters

Recall organizers said that they initiated the recall after the council voted 4-3 to fire former City Manager Angel Jones in May 2022. Barnes and Whitaker voted in favor of firing Jones. The other two "yes" votes, Paul Battle and Christopher Woodard, were up for election in November of 2022.[3]

Recall opponents

Barnes offered the following comment on the recall to 13News Now.[3]

"I’m excited to see our citizens engaged and exercising their rights. My concern is that we have more pressing issues in the city right now. We have been losing our children at an alarming rate, in which even I have been affected by losing my 12-year-old cousin to gun violence. My only hope is that the same passion they’re showing for this, they’ll gather in unity when our kids are getting shot dead in our Portsmouth streets.[4]

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in Virginia

For a recall election to be scheduled, organizers would have needed to collect signatures from 10% of the number of people who voted for Barnes and Whitaker in the last election.[1]

Recall context

See also: Ballotpedia's Recall Report

Ballotpedia covers recall efforts across the country for all state and local elected offices. A recall effort is considered official if the petitioning party has filed an official form, such as a notice of intent to recall, with the relevant election agency.

The chart below shows how many officials were included in recall efforts from 2012 to 2024 as well as how many of them defeated recall elections to stay in office and how many were removed from office in recall elections.

See also

External links

Footnotes