Rick Ellis and Roy Hubert recall, Lincoln County, Idaho (2020)
| Lincoln County Commission recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
Roy Hubert |
| Recall status |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2020 Recalls in Idaho Idaho recall laws County commission recalls Recall reports |
A recall election seeking to remove two of the three Lincoln County commissioners in Idaho was held on August 25, 2020.[1][2] A minimum of 710 votes in favor of recall was needed to remove Ellis from office, and a minimum of 833 votes was needed to remove Hubert from office. Both commissioners kept their positions as neither recall met those thresholds.[3][4]
The effort sought to recall Rick Ellis and Roy Hubert after they voted to build a new courthouse in a different location in the county.[5] Recall supporters had to submit petitions with 442 signatures in April 2020 to get the recall on the ballot.[5] They submitted 608 signatures on April 3, 2020, and the county verified 563.[1][6]
Ellis was first elected to the commission in 2018. Hubert was appointed to the commission in 2011 by Gov. Butch Otter (R), and he retained his seat in elections in 2012 and 2016.[7]
Recall vote
A minimum of 710 votes in favor of recall was needed to remove Ellis from office.[3]
Rick Ellis recall, 2020
Rick Ellis won the Lincoln County Commission District 1 recall election on August 25, 2020.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
Yes |
72.7
|
704 | |||
| ✔ | No |
27.3
|
265 | ||
Total Votes |
969 | ||||
|
|
A minimum of 833 votes in favor of recall was needed to remove Hubert from office.[3]
Roy Hubert recall, 2020
Roy Hubert won the Lincoln County Commission District 3 recall election on August 25, 2020.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
Yes |
72.6
|
698 | |||
| ✔ | No |
27.4
|
263 | ||
Total Votes |
961 | ||||
|
|
Recall supporters
Recall supporters said they were seeking to recall Ellis and Hubert due to a "willful disregard for the wishes and desires of the public" and "deliberately ignoring the results of two public surveys regarding the renovation of the courthouse."[5]
"People in Shoshone, Lincoln County, but especially in Shoshone, I don't talk to anybody that doesn't want to keep this courthouse here. People are fired up and adamant," Terry Zech, a recall supporter, said.[5]
Recall opponents
Ellis said the issues surrounding the courthouse started when the community took a survey detailing what they wanted in regards to renovations. He said that the survey results showed that "they wanted to renovate the existing courthouse and build a new, approximately 12,000 square foot annex." He said that the same survey showed that residents would vote in favor of a bond for that project. However, when it came time to vote, "fifty-one percent showed up to support the bond, and it failed. Because it took a super majority of 67 percent to win," Ellis said.[5]
Hubert explained his vote on a new building with the following statement:
| “ | I feel that a new building, if I were a handicapped person, and was in a wheel chair, and I was in a building with an elevator and was on the top floor, and a fire broke out, and the sign right up by the elevator says, in case of fire do not use the elevator? Uh I would rather be on a single story floor, which had multiple exits that I could get out on.[5][8] | ” |
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Idaho
To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters had to submit petitions with 442 signatures by April 3, 2020.[5] They submitted 608 signatures on April 3, 2020.[6] The county verified 563 signatures and added the recall election to the August 25, 2020, ballot.[1] In order to remove the two commissioners from office, "they have to have as many votes to recall them as they were voted into office," according to Lincoln County Clerk Brenda Farnworth.[9]
See also
- Lincoln County, Idaho
- Recall campaigns in Idaho
- Political recall efforts, 2020
- County commission recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Magicvalley.com, "Lincoln County Commissioners decline to resign in the face of a recall election," April 6, 2020
- ↑ Lincoln County, Idaho, "Lincoln County Commissioners," accessed June 22, 2020
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lincoln County Elections Department, "Unofficial Election Results," accessed August 26, 2020
- ↑ Magic Valley, "Lincoln County commissioners narrowly survive recall election," August 26, 2020
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 KMTV 11, "UPDATE: Lincoln County Commissioners facing recall explain their side of the story," February 12, 2020
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Big Country News, "Petitions to recall 2 Lincoln County commissioners turned in Friday," April 3, 2020
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedboard - ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ KMVT 11, "Two Lincoln County Commissioners being recalled on Aug. 25 ballot," August 12, 2020
