AM Hucks: Recalling Douglas Would Be Difficult

For those keeping score at home, Prosecutor Bill Douglas will serve out his term despite the latest e-mail scandal, if he wants to do so. It’s almost impossible to recall the Republican. Huckleberries Central got the info re: a recall from County Clerk Dan English . A successful recall effort would require backers to collect 14,494 valid signatures. In other words, organizers would have to gather more than 18,000 signatures to place a recall attempt on the ballot. The late anti-tax activist Ron Rankin, a master at circulating petitions and winning ballot access, always figured he needed 25 percent more signatures than the minimum requirement because a chunk of signatures fail to pass muster. The required signatures in a Douglas recall effort would be derived from multiplying the number of registered county voters in the 2004 election (72,471) by 20 percent. Even if the proper number of signatures is collected, organizers would only be halfway home when the recall effort made the ballot. At that point, they would need the votes of 43,230 county residents to dump Douglas – or one vote more than Republican Douglas won running unopposed in the 2004 presidential year. Last month, in an off-year election, only 37,973 county voters cast ballots. Are you beginning to see why Douglas is bulletproof no matter what becomes of the illicit e-mail scandal involving Chief Deputy Rick Baughman ? Or how the Idaho Supreme Court rules on his on e-mail controversy involving former subordinate Marina Kalani ? That’s why this newspaper wants him to resign instead.

Originally posted @ 4:57 p.m. Tuesday