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Mayor and city council recall, Caro, Michigan (2025)
| Caro Mayor and City Council recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Emily Campbell Charlotte Kish Heidi Parker Jill White |
| Recall status |
| Signature requirement |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2025 Recalls in Michigan Michigan recall laws City council recalls Mayoral recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall City Councilmembers Charlotte Kish, Heidi Parker, and Jill White did not go to a vote in Caro, Michigan. The recall effort was halted by a December 16, 2025 ruling of the Tuscola County Election Commission that determined the wording of the recall petitions was unclear.[1]
An effort to recall Mayor Karen Snider and City Councilmember Emily Campell also did not go to a vote due to unclear wording of its recall petition.[1]
Recall supporters
Recall organizer Shane Polega cited Councilmembers Kish, Parker, and White's failure to fill a vacant city council seat within 60 days as grounds for the recall, claiming it consituted a violation of the city charter. Organizer Logan Carpenter sponsored the recall against Mayor Snider and Councilmember Campbell for the same reason.[1]
Recall opponents
At a December 4, 2025 meeting of the Tuscola County Election Commission, lawyer Martin J. Porzondek, who represented Snider and Campbell, said "Now [Carpenter] notes that Ms. Snider and Ms. Campbell failed to appoint a candidate to the vacant council seat within 60 days." Porzondek said, "The city council has attempted to fill that vacancy on four separate occasions, the last being December 1. What’s going on at the city council right now is the fact that there are seven city council seats but one member has resigned, so there are six city council members. And they’re stagnant on a 3-3 vote [in trying to choose a new member]. They’re attempting to choose a new city council member, but on each attempt they’ve failed because of the political stagnation that is going on in the city council."[2]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Michigan
No specific grounds are required for recall in Michigan. To get a recall on the ballot in Michigan, recall supporters must collect signatures equal in number to 25% of voters in the jurisdiction in the last gubernatorial election. They have 60 days between the collection of the first signature and the collection of the last signature on the petition. Recall petitions are eligible to collect signatures for 180 days.[3][4][5]
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 2025 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
- Ballotpedia's Recall Report
- Caro, Michigan
- Recall campaigns in Michigan
- Political recall efforts, 2025
- City council recalls
- Mayoral recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Tuscola Advertiser, "Caro Picks John Riley, Ends City Deadlock," accessed December 16, 2025
- ↑ Tuscola Advertiser, "Unclear Wording Kills Potential Caro Recall Push," accessed December 6, 2025
- ↑ Michigan Election Law, "Act 116 of 1954: 168.955 Recall petition; number of signatures; certification." accessed October 13, 2023
- ↑ 'Michigan Election Law, "Act 116 of 1954: 168.961 Recall petition; filing; receipt; duties of filing official; duties of city or township clerk; certificate; duties of village clerk; use of qualified voter file." accessed October 13, 2023
- ↑ Michigan Election Officials' Manual, "Chapter 18 Recall Process," August 2017
