Jasiel Correia recall, Fall River, Massachusetts (2019)
| Fall River Mayoral recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| Recall election date |
| March 12, 2019 |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2019 Recalls in Massachusetts Massachusetts recall laws Mayoral recalls Recall reports |
An effort in Fall River, Massachusetts, to recall Mayor Jasiel Correia II was initiated in October 2018.[1] The recall was held on March 12, 2019, and was approved.[1]
According to The Herald News, Correia qualified to run as a candidate to be mayor if the recall vote was successful. On the first portion of the ballot, Correia was recalled with 7,829 votes cast in favor of the recall and 4,911 votes cast in opposition to the recall.[1] The second portion of the ballot allowed voters to choose who should serve as mayor if the recall vote succeeded. Correia received more votes than his four opponents, allowing him to retain his position.[1] He won by a plurality with 4,808 (35.4%) of the total votes cast. Runner-up Paul Coogan received 4,567 votes (33.6%), Joe Cmara won 1,971 votes (14.5%), Kyle Riley won 1,460 votes (10.8%), and Erica Scott-Pacheo won 740 votes (5.5%).[1]
Following the recall vote, a group of 10 voters involved in the recall process filed a lawsuit seeking to block the certification of the results. The lawsuit alleged that a city charter approved in 2017 should have prohibited Correia from running for re-election as a part of the recall vote. On March 22, 2019, New Bedford Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Perrino ruled against the lawsuit. He said, "while the 2017 charter no longer expressly permits the officeholder who is the subject of a recall from also being a candidate, the plaintiff has not shown that the 2017 charter expressly excludes a recalled candidate from succeeding himself."[2]
Recall vote
Below are election results for the recall election on March 12, 2019.[1]
| Jasiel Correia recall | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Recall | 7,829 | 61.45% | ||
| Retain | 4,911 | 38.55% | ||
Recall supporters
Petitioners began the recall process after Correia was arrested on October 11, 2018, on charges of wire and tax fraud related to his company SnoOwl.[1] On May 14, 2021, Correia was convicted of 21 counts of wire fraud, tax fraud, extortion, and extortion conspiracy. He was sentenced to six years in prison during his sentencing hearing on September 20, 2021.[3]
Recall opponents
In a press conference following the indictment, Correia said he was innocent of the charges and that he would not resign from office. He said the voters of Fall River should let him continue to serve or recall him.[4]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Massachusetts
Petitioners submitted about 6,000 signatures to the Fall River Board of Election Commissioners.[5] Signatures from 5 percent of the city's registered voters—2,510 valid signatures—were needed to put the recall election on the ballot. The city clerk found 4,533 signatures valid.[6]
See also
- Recall campaigns in Massachusetts
- Political recall efforts, 2018
- Political recall efforts, 2019
- Mayoral recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 The Herald News, "Recall organizer: Mayor Jasiel Correia has ‘fleeced us all’," October 18, 2018 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "recall" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Boston Globe, "Judge won’t block certification of Fall River results," March 22, 2019
- ↑ The Herald News, "Judge gives Jasiel Correia a prison date, and orders he repay SnoOwl investors $310,000," September 28, 2021
- ↑ The Herald News, "Defiant mayor declares: ‘I will not resign’," October 17, 2018
- ↑ The Herald News, "Fall River Wonders: What’s happening with the recall petition?," December 2, 2018
- ↑ WPRI, "More than 4,500 signatures certified in effort to recall Fall River mayor," December 12, 2018
