Ballotpedia's 2016 Recall Analysis

Recall elections in 2016: Year-end report
Statistics
374 targeted officials 244 separate recall efforts
Notable recalls
Alaska Denton, Texas East Cleveland, Ohio San Francisco Bay Area, California Yuba City, California

December 22, 2016 (updated September 17, 2024)
By Ballotpedia staff

Line-item vetoes, repeals of local fracking bans, fiscal emergencies, police shootings, and teacher strikes were a few of the reasons listed for the 244 total recall efforts Ballotpedia tracked in 2016. That total was higher than the total number of recall efforts tracked in both 2014 and 2015. In 2015, a total of 172 recall efforts were tracked, and in 2014, 223 recall efforts were tracked. Of the 374 officials who were targeted for recall, 107 of them faced a recall election. Sixty-four of those officials were recalled from office, and the other 43 officials survived the recall attempt to remain in office.

A recall effort begins when citizens circulate petitions to remove a public official from office either by putting the official back on the ballot in a special election or by having him or her removed from office by a judge. A recall effort is considered successful if the targeted official is removed from office. Despite the higher number of recall efforts tracked in 2016, nearly the same percentage of officials were successfully recalled from office in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, 15.99% of officials included in recall efforts were removed from office, and in 2016, 17.11% of officials were removed from office. In 2014, 21.24% of targeted officials were removed from office.

Efforts against state officials accounted for 4.10% of all recalls in 2016. This is a drop from 5.10% in 2015, but higher than the 0.78% in 2014. City council members accounted for 33.96% of recall efforts in 2016, and mayors accounted for 17.65%. Two councilmen were targeted in Denton, Texas, when they supported the repeal of a local ban on fracking. Though they ultimately retained their seats, another city councilman in East Cleveland, Ohio, did not have the same support. Thomas Wheeler was targeted for recall for dereliction of duty during the city's financial struggles. He and East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton were recalled on November 8, 2016, after retaining their seats in previous recall efforts.^[1][2]

California led the states with the highest number of recall efforts in 2016. Recall efforts were ongoing at the time of publication against the mayor of Oakland and the mayor of San Francisco. Both mayors were targeted for recall due to police shootings of civilians and policies allegedly favoring developers over citizens.^[3][4] In Sutter County, California, four members of the Yuba City Unified School District Governing Board were targeted for recall during teacher compensation negotiations. Though recall petitions were not turned in by the deadline, none of the incumbents whose terms were up for regular election on November 8, 2016, were re-elected.^[5][6]

Statistics

Ballotpedia covered a total of 244 recall efforts against 374 officials in 2016. Efforts against 36 of those officials continued into 2017 (marked "Underway" on the chart below). Recall attempts targeting 208 officials did not make it to the ballot (marked "Unsuccessful" on the chart below). Of the 107 officials whose recalls made it to the ballot, 64 were recalled and 43 survived the attempt. Eighteen other officials resigned before their recalls could go to a vote. Five targeted officials had their recall efforts decided by court order. A breakdown of the various recall outcomes is displayed in the chart below.

City council officials drew the focus of more recall petitions than any other group in 2016. A total of 127 city council members faced recall campaigns, while school board leaders faced the second-most with 78. Recalls were also sought for 66 mayors. Petitioners also targeted state-level officials, filing against seven state legislators and three state executives. A breakdown of the various recall targets is displayed in the chart below.

Targets by state

California led the way in officials targeted for recall with 75. Colorado came next with 38, and Michigan was third with 32. The map below displays the number of officials targeted for recall in each state, with darker shades representing higher numbers.

Notable recalls

Bill Walker recall, Alaska

See also: Bill Walker recall, Alaska (2016)

A recall effort targeting Alaska Governor Bill Walker is underway due to his line-item veto to the state budget on June 29, 2016. This veto halved the annual disbursement of Permanent Fund dividends to Alaska residents in 2016. The Permanent Fund was established in 1976 by a state constitutional amendment. At least 25 percent of state oil and minerals revenue is put into the fund, and dividends from it are disbursed annually to Alaskans. Historical dividend amounts between 1982 and 2015 ranged from about $300 to over $3,000.^[7] The Alaska State Legislature originally included $1.4 billion in allotments for Permanent Fund payouts in 2016. Walker's veto cut the allotment to $695 million, or $1,000 per person—less than half of 2015's dividend payout. The governor, who is the only Independent governor in the United States, asserted that the state had lost 80 percent of its revenue compared to the previous year and a half and was facing a $4 billion budget shortfall. "If we don't make a change on the dividend program, here's what happens. It goes away in under four years," he said.^[8][9]

The recall effort originated with calls from attorney and three-time U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller, who began holding a series of signature-collection events in July 2016.^[10] Alaska state recall laws require that an application be submitted to the Division of Elections with a number of physical signatures equal to 10 percent of the number of people who voted in the preceding general election—in 2016, equal to 28,585 signatures. If the application is approved, a petition is issued by the Division of Elections. In order to trigger a recall election, petitioners must then gather a number of signatures equal to 25 percent of the number of people who voted in the preceding general election. "They [recalls] are not very successful. Often they are denied because you do have some pretty strict requirements," said Division of Elections petition manager Carol Thompson.^[11] Recall supporters held a protest on October 1, 2016, during a forum to discuss the state budget. At that time, the group said that it had gathered thousands of signatures in support of the recall effort. Miller stated that it would take 28,000 signatures to begin the official recall effort and approximately 80,000 signatures to put the recall on the ballot.^[12]

The governor also faces a lawsuit related to his veto. On September 16, 2016, Democratic state Sen. Bill Wielechowski and two former Republican state senators, Clem Tillion and Rick Halford, filed a lawsuit against the Permanent Fund Corporation alleging that Walker's veto was illegal under the constitutional amendment that established the fund. The plaintiffs claimed that only the state legislature had the authority to adjust dividend payouts.^[13] The complaint was filed in the Third District Court of Alaska and assigned to Judge Herman Walker Jr.^[14]

Joey Hawkins and Kevin Roden recall, Denton, Texas

See also: Joey Hawkins and Kevin Roden recall, Denton, Texas (2016)

Denton residents concerned with City Councilman Joey Hawkins' support for repealing a local ban on fracking sought his removal from office starting in 2015. The recall effort reached the May 2016 ballot, but Hawkins survived the recall with 71.3 percent of the vote. Fellow Councilman Kevin Roden was also targeted, but the effort failed because signature sheets did not follow city guidelines requiring signature totals on each sheet.^[1]

A November 2014 initiative banning fracking in the city was approved by voters, leading to concerns by city council members about the impact on the local economy. The Texas State Legislature preempted local bans on fracking in May 2015, and Hawkins and Roden voted to repeal the ban in June 2015. Recall organizers Theron Palmer and Elida Tamez submitted a petition seeking Hawkins' recall in December 2015, which led to a recall election on May 7, 2016.^[15] A group called Citizens for Local Governance led by former Councilman Pete Kamp opposed the recall effort, citing an international organization called Rising Tide that sought to create civil disobedience through local groups.^[16]

Gary Norton and Thomas Wheeler recall, East Cleveland, Ohio

See also: Gary Norton and Thomas Wheeler recall, East Cleveland, Ohio (2016)

East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton and City Councilman Thomas Wheeler were recalled from office on November 8, 2016, after two years of political tensions. Norton was targeted in a 2015 recall effort that did not reach the ballot, while Wheeler survived recall votes in December 2015 and June 2016. These recall efforts took place in the midst of East Cleveland's financial struggles including consideration of bankruptcy by city officials and annexation by Cleveland, Ohio. Pecolia Standberry sought the recall of Wheeler in all three instances for dereliction of duty as a public official. Devin Branch pursued Norton's removal due to the mayor's support for annexation and failure to enforce city laws.^[2] Norton pushed for annexation by Cleveland beginning with the city's fiscal emergency in 2012, and Wheeler moved toward supporting annexation in 2016 after years of supporting other solutions to keep East Cleveland intact.^[17]

Mayoral recalls in the San Francisco Bay Area

See also: Libby Schaaf recall, Oakland, California (2016) and Ed Lee recall, San Francisco, California (2016)

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee face recall efforts ongoing at the time of publication. Both mayors face scrutiny from local groups over police shootings of civilians and city policies seen as favoring developers over residents. The Anti Police-Terror Project filed a notice of intent to recall Schaaf in July 2016 and began circulation of petitions in September 2016. This group needs to submit approximately 33,000 valid signatures from registered city voters by February 25, 2017, to continue the recall process.^[3] The Frisco 5 filed a notice of intent to recall Lee in July 2016 and started petition circulation in October 2016. Lee recall organizers need approximately 47,000 valid signatures from registered city voters by March 18, 2017. Schaaf was first elected to office in November 2014, and Lee was appointed mayor in January 2011 and re-elected in both 2011 and 2015.^[4]

Yuba City Unified School District recall, California

See also: Yuba City Unified School District recall, California (2016)

Four of the seven members on the Yuba City Unified School District Governing Board were targeted for recall during teacher compensation negotiations in 2016. The Yuba City Teachers Association wanted pay raises for teachers, but the governing board said the district did not have the funds for teacher salaries that the union requested. The negotiations lasted for a year, and an agreement was not reached until teachers went on strike for seven days in September 2016.^{[5][18][19][20]}

Though district officials and teachers reached an agreement, the recall effort continued. Recall supporters targeted Board President Lonetta Riley and her fellow members Steven Scriven, Paul Broughton, and Fred Northern. The other three members of the board—Herbert Cooley, Sharman Kobayashi, and John Amarel—were up for regular election on November 8, 2016. Kobayashi did not run to retain her seat, and both Cooley and Amarel were defeated in their re-election bids.^[21][22][23]

Proponents of the recall said board members had created "an increasingly negative and hostile environment." Riley, however, said the board had tried to resolve issues "in a fair and equitable manner." Recall supporters also did not agree with the board's decision to hire Superintendent Nancy Aaberg's replacement without opening the position or looking for external candidates, despite Aaberg's assurance that the board's choice was the best leader for the job. Recall supporters had to turn in petitions by December 9, 2016, to get the recall on the ballot in 2017.^[5][18][19] They did not submit the petitions by the deadline.^[6]

See also

• Recall overview
• Political recall efforts
• Political recall efforts, 2016
• Laws governing recall
• 2016 mid-year report
• 2015 year-end report
• 2015 mid-year report

Footnotes