Recall Elections Lawyer Denver

Deadline near in DPS recall effort

Recall organizer John McBride said last week that more than 5,363 signatures – the minimum needed to initiate what would be a recall election by mail – will be submitted at 3:30 p.m., beating the 5 p.m. deadline. He declined to be more specific about the number of names in hand as of Friday.

McBride said Take Back Our Schools, the political committee for which he is registered agent, still does not even have a bank account and remains a grassroots effort.

“I’ve spent a little, for some fliers,” said McBride, who is head of the Northeast Community Congress for Education. “The people doing this are all doing it out of their own pockets.”

Once the Easley recall signatures are submitted, the Denver Elections Division must determine whether Easley opponents have turned in the required minimum, which is equal to 40 percent of those who voted when Easley was elected from Far Northeast Denver in November 2009.

If city elections officials determine sufficient valid signatures were collected, and those signatures withstand any subsequent formal protest that might be filed, they’ll set a date for a recall vote, likely the last week of June. Replacement candidates would be listed on the same ballot.

With a vote yet to be set, the effort has already stoked passions in opposing factions deeply invested in district policy, prompting political leaders to weigh in on DPS reform plans and even spawning a satirical anonymous website, purporting to be created by Easley but clearly the work of someone intent on sabotaging his image.

As for what candidates might appear on a potential recall ballot to replace Easley, McBride declined to give names. He added that there could be “maybe about five,” including some who unsuccessfully sought the District 4 seat along with Easley.

“I know one name that will not be on it,” said McBride, who ran unsuccessfully for the DPS board in 2007. “Mine.”

Easley’s opponents in 2009 were Alton Clark, Vernon Jones, Andrea Mosby and Jacqui Shumway. Jones, who came in second with 28 percent of the vote to Easley’s 34 percent, did not rule out running again and said in a statement that he is “very concerned about who might represent us if the recall efforts are successful.”

A rally backing the district reform plans that Easley supports was held Thursday outside the downtown offices of DPS. Because it was organized by the non-profit advocacy groups Education Reform Now and Stand for Children, who are prohibited from endorsing political candidates, participants said they could not specifically address the Easley recall.

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