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Recall Petitions Turned Into Garfield County Clerk For Second Time
On Friday, September 3rd, petitions calling for the recall of elected
officials Mayor Charles Cone, Council Member Terry Cone and Council Member
Carolyn DeBaets were once again turned into Garfield County Clerk, Linda
Heermann.
For some this may seem like dejavu as this is the second time that Recall
Petitions have been turned in for these three Council members. On Friday,
July 2nd Principal Circulator Donald Jones turned in the first set of signed
petitions only to find out that the Garfield County Clerk, Linda Heermann,
had given incorrect information regarding the number of signatures that
would be required to certify the Recall Petitions. Heermann had calculated
that the required number of signatures would be 35% of the votes cast for
that candidate, when in fact it should have been calculated as 35% of the
number of votes cast for the office. With incorrect information the first
set of Recall Petitions fell only slightly short of the actual requirements,
making them uncertifiable.
Petition carriers along with Principal Circulator Donald Jones believe that
if they now have the correct information regarding the number of required
signatures, there should be "No problem" in seeing the three Council
Members placed on a recall ballot.
Heermann has fifteen working days, or until September 27th, in which to
certify the Recall Petitions. Each petition will be certified if enough
of the signatures are deemed as valid meaning that the signature comes
from a registered voter and that voter is qualified by his or her place
of residence to vote for the office in question. In order for the Recall
Petitions to be certified Heermann stated that the required number of signatures
in regards to Mayor Charles Cone would be 210, signatures required regarding
Council Member Terry Cone would be 120 and the number of required signatures
in regards to Council Member Carolyn DeBaets would be 84.
Jones stated that he could not foresee a high number of the gathered signatures
being rejected, however, they had "Gathered enough signatures to allow
for a cushion."