Removing an Official from Office Through Direct Vote
You can file a prospective recall petition against most public officials only after they’ve been in office for at least 6 months of their current term, except for state senators and representatives.
For state senators and representatives, you can file a prospective recall petition any time after the 5th day of their first legislative session in their current term.
If the official was elected to a state office, you must file with the state elections office. For all other officials, start the recall process with the 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 30th day after signatures are submitted for verification, or no later than the 120th 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.