Auditor warns issue may not make Nov. 8 ballot

Even a lightning-fast ruling from the state’s highest court Wednesday did nothing to change the contention by Spokane County’s top election officials that it’s probably too late to add the recall effort against Spokane Mayor Jim West to the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

But recall organizers, who disagree with county Auditor Vicky Dalton’s assessment, are pledging to try.

Dalton and her aides say they’ll need at least a month to verify signatures gathered by recall organizers, largely because her office will be focused on preparations for the Sept. 20 primary election. Recall advocates counter that state law requires elections officers to finish the job in no more than 15 days after the signatures are turned in.

The names in the recall petitions must be verified as eligible Spokane voters by Sept. 23 to make the November ballot.

“I can’t jeopardize the integrity of the primary election to get the petitions done by the filing date for the general election,” Dalton said Wednesday afternoon.

But with the state Supreme Court’s swift ruling Wednesday, recall organizers are feeling renewed momentum.

They have 180 days to collect 12,567 signatures of registered Spokane voters, but plan to turn them in Sept. 9. The number of required signatures represents 25 percent of the people who voted in the 2003 mayoral race.

In arguing for a quick decision from the Supreme Court, Jerry Davis, attorney representing the recall effort, told justices that under state law, the election office has 15 days to verify signatures.

If the court rules quickly, he said, “it’s very doable” to put the matter to voters on Election Day.

Dalton “has no choice,” said Shannon Sullivan, the Spokane woman who has led the recall effort. “She has 15 days to canvas them, period, end of subject. She works for the people.”

Dalton, however, said as far as she knows there is no state law that creates a deadline for checking names. Dalton would not rule out that the petitions could be verified in less than a month, but said it was “highly improbable” and warned that rushing the process would make their work more vulnerable to a court challenge.

If they miss the deadline for the Nov. 8 election, the vote will be held 45 to 60 days from the date that the names are verified by county officials. The date could be any day of the week and would be selected by the county auditor’s office, said Paul Brandt, Spokane County elections manager.

A separate election would cost the city between $140,000 and $160,000 if it was conducted strictly by mail, Dalton said.

Once the petitions are turned in, election workers must wait five days to start tallying them to give notice to West and recall organizers that verification will begin.

About 30 percent of signatures on recall petitions are usually disqualified because they are from people who aren’t registered to vote or live outside election boundaries, Brandt said. That means recall supporters likely need to turn in at least 16,000 signatures.

Finding people to sign petitions for a recall won’t be a problem, said Rita Amunrud, spokeswoman for Citizens for Integrity in Government, which runs a Web site called westmustgo.com. She said organizers plan to have petitions to sign at Riverfront Park at Pig Out in the Park over Labor Day weekend.

“We’re going to get over the number of signatures needed, so there isn’t any issue regarding legitimacy of the signatures,” Amunrud said.