Meg Zaletel recall, Anchorage, Alaska (2020-2021)
| Anchorage Assembly recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| Recall election date |
| October 26, 2021 |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2021 Recalls in Alaska Alaska recall laws City council recalls Recall reports |
A recall election for Assembly Member Meg Zaletel was held on October 26, 2021, in Anchorage, Alaska.[1][2] Voters chose to retain Zaletel by a margin of 60% to 40%.[3]
Organizers alleged Zaletel knowingly participated in a city council meeting that violated the city's restrictions on indoor gatherings during the pandemic in August 2020. Zaletel replied that the recall was a waste of resources because her seat on the assembly would be up for election in 2022.[4]
Zaletel was elected to the Anchorage Assembly when she earned 52.4% of the vote in the municipal election on April 2, 2019.
To read about other recall efforts related to the coronavirus and government responses to the pandemic, click here.
Recall vote
Meg Zaletel recall, 2021
Meg Zaletel won the Anchorage Assembly District 4 Seat F recall election on October 26, 2021.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
Yes |
40.1
|
4,323 | |||
| ✔ | No |
59.9
|
6,459 | ||
Total Votes |
10,782 | ||||
|
|
Recall supporters
Anchorage resident Russell Biggs led the recall effort. Organizers said they were trying to recall Zaletel because she had attended a city council meeting in August 2020, which violated the city's ban on indoor gatherings of more than 15 people.[5]
The group Reclaim Midtown also posted the following explanation of the recall campaign on its Facebook page: "Meg Zaletel is responsible for wasting millions of dollars of CARES Act relief funds! She wants to DEFUND the Police, empower criminals, and prevent the rights of hundreds of private citizens from speaking at the Anchorage Assembly!"[6]
Recall opponents
Zaletel said that the recall campaign was a “huge waste of taxpayer dollars." She added that "recall for the same grounds was essentially rejected earlier this year," referring to the recall campaign against Anchorage Assembly Member Felix Rivera.[5] Voters decided against recalling Rivera in the municipal election on April 6, 2021, by a margin of 56.5% to 43.5%.
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Alaska
Organizers needed to collect 2,468 signatures from registered voters in Anchorage Assembly District 4. This number represented 25% of the votes cast in the District 4 race during the 2019 municipal election.[5]
Recall supporter Russell Biggs said that the campaign had submitted 4,500 signatures to the municipal clerk's office on August 16, 2021.[5]
Biggs had filed two recall petitions against Zaletel in 2020. After the Anchorage municipal clerk rejected them as legally insufficient, the issue was heard in the Alaska Superior Court. In June 2021, Judge Kevin Saxby approved one of the recall petitions, which alleged that Zaletel had knowingly participated in a city council meeting that violated the city's restrictions on indoor gatherings during the pandemic. On August 19, the Alaska Supreme Court reaffirmed the lower court's ruling, allowing the recall election to be scheduled.[4][7]
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
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Alaska's News Source, "Special election set in recall of Anchorage Assembly member Meg Zaletel," August 27, 2021
- ↑ Must Read Alaska, "Petitioners file signatures with clerk to recall Meg Zaletel from Assembly," August 16, 2021
- ↑ Municipality of Anchorage, "Election Summary Report: General Election Municipality of Anchorage October 26, 2021," November 3, 2021
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Anchorage Daily News, "Petition to recall Anchorage Assembly member Meg Zaletel moves ahead," June 16, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Anchorage Daily News, "Group seeking recall of Anchorage Assembly member Meg Zaletel says it has collected enough signatures," August 18, 2021
- ↑ Facebook, "Reclaim Midtown," July 31, 2021
- ↑ Alaska's News Source, "Alaska Supreme Court upholds ruling allowing Zaletel recall petition to go forward," August 19, 2021
