Recall vote possible on Nov. 29

Spokane city voters could decide whether to oust Mayor Jim West the Tuesday after Thanksgiving if the supporters of a recall petition collect all the signatures they believe they need.

Recall author Shannon Sullivan and County Auditor Vicky Dalton said Monday that Nov. 29 is the most likely date for the recall election, based on a new timetable they have worked out.

Sullivan said recall supporters have an estimated 16,000 signatures, which is more than the requirement for 12,567 valid signatures from registered city voters. But that’s short of the cushion they set of 17,000 signatures, which they would like to have for the signatures that could be thrown out in the validation process.

Sullivan said they will continue gathering signatures until Sept. 21, then turn in petitions to the county elections office that day. By law, Dalton must wait five days, while West is formally notified of the validation process.

The signature verification could take about two weeks. If the petitions have sufficient signatures, the election must occur within 45 days to 60 days.

Scheduling it for Nov. 29 would mean the ballots would be mailed out after the Nov. 8 general election.

“That way we don’t have ballots crossing in the mail,” Dalton said.

The election will be conducted by mail-in ballot, Dalton added, because the county will have just completed two poll-site elections in less than two months, and changing the voting machines over for a third election would be difficult.

An all-mail election also is likely to prompt a higher turnout, said Dalton, who under state law has the authority to decide how a recall election is conducted. Once the election date is set, West would have seven days to submit a response that would be printed on the ballot along with the recall ballot proposal. He would be allowed as many as 250 words for his response, and would have few limitations on what he could say, Dalton said.

She doesn’t believe recall supporters could challenge West’s ballot language in court.

But there could be a challenge of the process from another direction. Former City Councilman Steve Eugster notified Sullivan and city officials he might take legal action because the signatures gathered thus far are, in his opinion, illegal.

In a letter from his group, Coalition for a New Spokane, Eugster contends that Sullivan and other petition volunteers should have waited until the state Supreme Court published the reasoning behind its Aug. 25 decision that the recall could go forward. After a special hearing during its summer recess, the court denied West’s appeal of a lower court ruling that gave the green light to the recall.

But the Supreme Court has yet to publish an opinion on the case, something that Eugster said is needed before signatures can be gathered.

“Unless you can show me where Coalition for a New Spokane is wrong on the law or the facts, it intends to file a challenge to each signature which has been obtained on your petition prior to the time the Supreme Court renders the decision required by it – that is one ‘given in writing’ wherein the ‘grounds for the decision shall be rendered,’ ” he wrote.

Dalton said, however, that she believes recall supporters are on solid ground in gathering signatures at this point.

“Based on my legal counsel’s advice, they can collect signatures,” Dalton said.