Removing an Official from Office Through Direct Vote
A prospective recall petition may be filed for a public office holder,
other than a state senator or representative, only after
the public officer has served at least 6 months of their current term of office.
A prospective petition may be
filed for a state senator or representative any time after the 5th
day of the first legislative session of their current term of office.
The filing officer for all public officials elected to a
state office is the state elections office.
For all other public officers the recall process starts with
their appropriate county, city or district filing officer.
A chief petitioner begins the recall process by filing the following form:
SEL350:
Prospective Petition
- Recall cover sheet
Recalls: Signature Gathering
The chief petitioner may begin gathering signatures after receiving
written approval to circulate, and after
reviewing with circulators the legal requirements and guidelines for circulating a recall petition.
After gathering the required number of signatures,
the chief petitioner submits
them to the appropriate filing
officer for verification, no later than 90
days after the prospective petition was filed.
Recalls: Signature Verification
The elections filing officer
must complete the signature verification process
no later than the 10th day after signatures are submitted for verification, or no later than the 100th day after the prospective petition was filed,
whichever is earlier.
If the filing
officer determines that the petition contained an insufficient number of valid
signatures, and the deadline to submit signatures has passed, the recall
process is stopped.
If the filing
officer determines that the petition contained a sufficient number of valid
signatures, the public officer may submit either a statement of justification
to be printed on the ballot or a written resignation no later than the 5th
day after the petition qualified to the ballot.
If the public
officer holder does not resign within 5 days, a recall election must be held no
later than the 35th day after the last day for the public officer to
resign.
The required number of valid signatures is 15% of the votes
cast for governor in the public officer’s district during the last
gubernatorial election at which a candidate for Governor was elected to a full
term. Votes cast includes miscellaneous write-in votes, but not over votes or
under votes.