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Mayor and city council recall, Kingman, Arizona (2020-2021)
| Kingman Mayor and City Council recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Ken Watkins David Wayt Jamie Scott Stehly SueAnn Mello |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2020 Recalls in Arizona Arizona recall laws Mayoral recalls City council recalls Recall reports |
An effort in Kingman, Arizona, to recall Mayor Jen Miles, Vice Mayor Ken Watkins, Councilman David Wayt, Councilwoman Jamie Scott Stehly, and Councilwoman SueAnn Mello was initiated in September 2020.[1] Petitioners submitted enough signatures to put the recall against Miles on the ballot.[2] On March 17, 2021, a Mohave County Superior Court judge ruled that the recall against Miles could not move forward because some petitions weren't properly submitted.[3]
On February 16, 2021, petitions were submitted in the recall effort against Scott Stehly. The Kingman city clerk found that not enough valid signatures were submitted for the recall election to be scheduled.[4] The recall effort against Watkins, Wayt, and Mello also did not move forward.[5]
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall supporters
The recall effort against Miles was organized by resident James Coffman in response to a city council vote on September 15, 2020, to extend mask requirements until October 20, 2020. Coffman's father, also named James Coffman, filed for petitions against Watkins, Wayt, Scott Stehly, and Mello. All five officials voted in favor of extending the mask mandate. Masking requirements went into effect on July 1, 2020, and were extended to the end of August 2020 before a second extension put them into effect until the end of December 2020. The city council voted 4-3 in October 2020 to repeal the mask mandate.[6][1]
Recall opponents
Miles said about the masking requirements, "I care about the people in this city, and I truly acted in what I believed and still do believe is in the best interest of our health and safety. There is absolutely nothing that I would do differently; I would still have the mask mandate if I could."[6]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Arizona
The number of signatures required to qualify a recall attempt for the ballot is 25 percent of the number of votes cast in the last election for that office.
Recall organizers were required to submit 1,384 valid signatures against Miles by January 12, 2021, to put the recall election on the ballot. There were 2,287 signatures turned in, with 1,512 signatures being found valid by the Mohave County Recorder.[1][2] On March 17, 2021, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen ruled that the recall against Miles could not move forward because some petitions weren't submitted with time-and-date-marked copies and some petition signatures were found to have been added without a witness.[3]
Petitioners needed 1,438 valid signatures by January 19, 2021, for each of the recalls against Watkins, Wayt, Scott Stehly, and Mello.[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 Arizona
- Political recall efforts, 2020
- Political recall efforts, 2021
- Mayoral recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Kingman Miner, "Recall effort underway over Kingman mask mandate," September 22, 2020
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kingman City Clerk's Office, "Official Filing of Recall Petitions," March 4, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mohave Valley Daily News, "Judge tosses Kingman recall effort," March 17, 2021
- ↑ The Bee News, "Petitions Submitted for Recall," February 18, 2021
- ↑ Ballotpedia Staff, "Email communication with Kristi Blair, March 26, 2021
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Kingman Miner, "Recall effort for Mayor Jen Miles to advance to election," March 5, 2021
