An effort to recall two Sedona Fire District Governing Board members fell approximately 50 signatures short in the Yavapai County elections office Oct. 13.
Voter registration offices in Yavapai and Coconino counties reported neither Don Harr nor Charles Christensen, both SFD board members, could be recalled.
“They didn’t have enough valid signatures,” Yavapai County Elections Director Lynn Constable said.
In a letter Constable addressed to Karen Schmitt, a driving force behind the recall, she wrote 1,799 valid signatures were needed to recall each candidate.
According to the letter, only 1,749 signatures to recall Harr could be verified and 1,742 to recall Christensen.
“We are so close it squeaks,” Schmitt said. She blamed the shortfall on notary issues and unregistered voters signing petitions.
Schmitt consulted a lawyer and said she will continue to pursue the recall in whatever way legally possible.
Schmitt submitted 236 recall petitions with 2,205 signatures to recall Harr. She submitted 233 petitions with 2,168 signatures to recall Christensen.
After petitions are submitted, Constable said her office checks for content — all lines on the
petition are filled out including signature and date.
During the first evaluation, Constable’s staff declared 228 of the 236 petitions to recall Harr valid, dropping the signature count to 2,095.
According to Constable’s letter, three petitions containing 42 signatures were eliminated because the circulator affidavit was not complete, three petitions with 43 signatures were removed because signature dates were after the notarization date, one petition with 11 signatures contained signatures without a date at all, one petition with 10 was not notarized and four other signatures were removed due to incomplete information.
The same evaluation of petitions against Christensen lowered the number to 226 from 233 dropping the number of signatures to 2,093.
Petitions against Christensen contained similar problems. Of the seven dropped, three petitions with 41 signatures were removed because the circulator affidavit was not complete, three petitions contained 23 signatures dated after the notary date, one petition contained five signatures without dates and six additional signatures were removed due to incomplete verification information.
Constable then forwarded the petitions to the appropriate voter registration department where staff again evaluated the validity of the signatures.
The voter registration offices verify people who signed the petitions live within the Sedona Fire District and were registered to vote on the date they signed a petition.
Constable’s office sent 2,095 signatures to recall Harr to the registration offices and 1,749 were deemed valid. For the Christensen recall, 2,093 signatures were forwarded and 1,742 were verified.
In Constable’s five years as elections director, she said this is the first time a recall effort didn’t contain enough signatures following review. State statue isn’t clear as to what Schmitt can do next, so Constable recommend she consult a lawyer.
Additional signatures cannot be added to Schmitt’s effort after petitions are submitted to the county, according to Constable.
Schmitt said her efforts to recall Christensen and Harr will continue.
“If nothing else, we brought this to the attention of people that were not aware,” Schmitt said.
Harr and Christensen did not return phone calls requesting comment by press time.
