Jamie Allard recall, Anchorage, Alaska (2021-2022)
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An effort to recall Assembly Member Jamie Allard did not qualify for the ballot in Anchorage, Alaska, after organizers failed to gather the required 2,530 signatures.[1] Recall supporters alleged that Allard had violated the Alaska Open Meetings Act and a coronavirus emergency order limiting the number of people allowed to gather indoors.[2]
Allard was elected to Anchorage Assembly District 2 in the municipal election in April 2020. She earned 59.2% of the vote, defeating Stephany Jeffers and Roger Branson.
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall supporters
The group Recall Jamie Allard gave the following grounds for recall on its website:[3]
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It is unacceptable that a Public Official :
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The recall petition application gave several additional grounds for recall. First, organizers alleged that Allard had knowingly violated pandemic orders restricting the number of people gathering indoors. They also alleged that Allard violated the Alaska Open Meetings Act in an email reply to a constituent, which included the rest of the assembly. The text of the email, dated October 13, 2021, can be found in the recall petition application, which appears in full below.[2]
Recall opponents
In a statement to Alaska Public Media, Allard said, "Even though the merits of recall are laughable because I was the only one who objected — on the record — to the issue they are attempting to recall me for, I believe in our democracy and the vote of the people."[5]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Alaska
Organizers submitted the recall petition application to the Anchorage municipal clerk on October 18, 2021. The municipal clerk approved the recall petition for circulation in November.[5]
According to the group Recall Jamie Allard, organizers needed to collect around 2,500 signatures from registered voters in the district for a recall election to be scheduled.[3] The submission deadline passed on January 17, 2022.[5]
A recall election was not scheduled after organizers were not able to meet the deadline. Chelsea Foster, a sponsor of the initiative, said they had collected 454 signatures.[1]
Ballotpedia covered 35 coronavirus-related recall efforts against 94 officials in 2022, accounting for 13% of recalls that year. This is a decrease from both 2020 and 2021. COVID-related recalls accounted for 37% of all recall efforts in both 2020 and 2021. In 2020, there were 87 COVID-related recalls against 89 officials, and in 2021, there were 131 against 214 officials.
The chart below compares coronavirus-related recalls to recalls for all other reasons in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
See also
- Recall campaigns in Alaska
- Political recall efforts, 2021
- Political recall efforts, 2022
- City council recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Anchorage Daily News, "Effort to recall Jamie Allard from Anchorage Assembly fails to gather enough signatures," January 20, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Alaska Public Media, "Petition filed to recall Assembly member Jamie Allard," October 18, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Recall Jamie Allard, "Home," accessed October 27, 2021
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Alaska Public Media, "Petition to recall Anchorage Assembly member Jamie Allard certified, signature gathering can begin," November 18, 2021