Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Recall Bill Passes Committee

State Representative Shanda Yates (I- No Man's Land) filed a bill that will allow voters to recall Mayors.   The power to recall elected officials does not currently exist in Mississippi. The bill states: 

Before the Governor shall consider the removal from a county office of any elective county officer or a municipal office of any elective municipal officer, there shall be first filed with him a petition signed by not less than thirty percent (30%) of the qualified electors of said county or municipality demanding the removal of * * * the officer. Such petition shall contain a general statement, in not more than two hundred (200) words, of the ground or grounds on which such removal is demanded, which statement shall be for the information of the officer involved, for the information of the council hereinafter provided, and for the information of the qualified electors of the county or municipality.

The bill also applies to counties: 

All removal petitions with reference to only supervisors, justice court judges and constables must be signed by at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the qualified electors of the beat or district from which they were originally elected.

The Governor would have the power to remove the official from office once the threshold of signatures is reached.  

The bill passed the House of Representatives Judiciary "B" Committee yesterday. 

It is an interesting bill because Ms. Yates represents part of Jackson. It is a safe bet Hizzoner is not a fan of the State Representative's bill.  However, the threshold could be reached against popular mayors.  Get 30% against the Queen or Gene and whammo, Governor can replace the Mayor.  Obviously the subject needs some debate.  It's heading to the floor of the House so stay tuned, this might get interesting.  

Bill status, history, and text.


39 comments:

Anonymous said...

h0w about one recalling state representatives?i

Anonymous said...

Shanda Yates is an outstanding and smart legislator. We are lucky to have her.

Anonymous said...

Shanda is acting like Gunn is going to be around to protect her. This is going to open up a whole can of worms that people aren't thinking about.

Anonymous said...

Shanda made a boss move

Anonymous said...

51%? C'mon man.

Anonymous said...

Hell, you can't get 30% of qualified electors in Jackson to VOTE in the election for mayor.

Anonymous said...

The only two problems I have are the 30% requirement (I'd make it a little higher), and the fact the law doesn't apply to everyone from dog catcher to Lt. Governor. I guess the gov could fall under it if someone else would have the authority to fire him. Maybe the dog catcher could do it.

Anonymous said...

10:38 nailed it. Notice this doesn’t apply to State office holders. Good for thee but not for me.

Anonymous said...

11:29, you are correct and I love the dog catcher analogy. My dad used to use that a lot!!

Wow said...

Have other states/areas in the country also taken the approach of giving the executive branch (Governor) the unilateral authority to remove and replace a mayor once the % threshold has been reached?

Is this a well understood and studied approach?

Or, in other states, once the threshold is met, is there another election/general vote at that point that involves embattled mayor? I am curious about the implications of this and how it has worked out in other states/areas/regions.

I hope some type of ability to recall passes.

Anonymous said...

Get it Done! Shanda Yates

I can see an ending to Chockweed!

Anonymous said...

11:29, you have to start somewhere; and Antar is the best reason for this to pass.

Anonymous said...

Getting 30% of Jackson voters to even vote is nearly impossible, much less sign a petition.

Anonymous said...

Recall should be in the constitution and it should cover ALL elected offices.

Anonymous said...

How about a recall for the Governor?

Anonymous said...

A losing candidate with 40% of the vote could rally their supporters and remove a mayor or councilman a few days after losing the election? The recall would be the thing, not the election.

Anonymous said...

Please, please let us recall Lumumba. I thought we had a ray of hope after south Jackson was without water for 28 days in 2021, but they voted him right back in within a few short months.
We have no hope at all in this city with him here.
I will be the first to sign....

Anonymous said...

Don't see this happening. If so, we should shoot for anyone voted to office statewide.

Anonymous said...

I'm all for it. The question is, once the mayor is removed, who picks the next one? The governor or a special election? Would the removed mayor be eligible to run in the special election?

Anonymous said...

Not sure why the people in Jackson are angry, you guys keep voting the same people in office and expect something different. One day, maybe, you guys will figure this out.

Anonymous said...

"Hell, you can't get 30% of qualified electors in Jackson to VOTE in the election for mayor."


Nowhere in Mississippi has 30% of qualified electors participated in elections. This has been an issue for years now.

Anonymous said...

Door-to-door soliciting in West & South Jxn for a signature to remove Lil Choke? At one's peril.

Anonymous said...

No more Pelahatchie debacles.

Anonymous said...

That would be fine if it didn't allow the Governor to appoint the mayor. I'd be ok with the city council appointing one for a defined short period of time.
I don't think she's thought this through or used good models to craft this.
I wish those of you who are NOT current residents of Jackson and who seem to assume all of those who are are stupid, crazy or crooked, need to mind your own business.
Or you can move back and run for office.
But, your insults are not persuasive and your assumptions are flawed.
Nor do you seem not to understand what fiscal limitations exist for the job.
We are NOT so naive as to believe that Jackson will be treated fairly as long as the majority of our population remains majority Black.
Most of us know there are smart and decent and law abiding Black people in our population and with you stopping your attacks, we might be able to work to improve our circumstances.
You convince them all white people think they are superior and assume the worst of every Black we meet.
It's hard to earn their trust for good reasons.
But, until the decent folks can trust in each other's decency, we can't move forward.
Find the smartest kids in any school here and they will tell you they don't think they will have a country or a future.
At least this woman purposes a possible solution for discussion. Y'all just bitch and whine and ferment trouble.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately there was no one credible to vote for during the last mayoral election. You should still vote regardless but people have gotten discouraged

Anonymous said...

"Door-to-door soliciting in West & South Jxn for a signature to remove Lil Choke? At one's peril."

Well, there is a good chance nothing like this will happen, as people canvas these areas pretty frequently. Still, the only places this will actual effect is suburban areas with smaller populations. Some crazies are going to get together and decided their mayor isn't "republican" enough and they are going to attempt to have them recalled.

Shanda trying to appease Northeast Jackson is funny, but NE Jackson also needs to get a grip at times. Yes there are issues, but they never seem to actually want to work towards a solution. It's always excuses from that lot as well.

Anonymous said...

30% of the electors is a massive number. I think the total turnout is usually half of that so in reality a recall would need something like 200% of the total voter turnout in the average election.

Anonymous said...

12:56 PM
Sure. And like California Tate will be relected handily. -A Hood-turned-Tate voter.

Anonymous said...

Feel-good piece of legislation to help her with the rapidly dwindling population of conservative (white) voters remaining in her district. Unachievable signature thresholds to hold incompetent leaders truly accountable. If passed this recall provision will be all threat and (very) quickly disregarded once the first effort fails to cross the finish line.

Anonymous said...

Yo Chowke! This bill has your name all over it!

Anonymous said...

@5:39 You gave me a much needed laugh.

Anonymous said...

10:51a nailed it. No love for Chokwe but I’m worried about taking more power from the people. We have to be careful with that especially now that there is no ballot initiative process. Arrogant assholes say we can’t change our own constitution. This will become a dickTATERship faster than you can blink.

The Loser Gets The Job said...

"A losing candidate with 40% of the vote could rally their supporters and remove a mayor or councilman a few days after losing the election? The recall would be the thing, not the election."

Absolutely! The 'deep thinkers' posting above never considered how unintended consequences can bite you in the ass. All they want is Chokwe's head on a platter.

Anonymous said...

Modify the language in the bill to make it only apply to Hinds County and the City of Canton.

W. Carter said...

Shanda is doing a great job and is really focused on helping Jackson. She has spent several days with Neill Schaffer Firm in hopes of understanding the water/sewer issues and seems very well versed on helping our city fix these complicated issues. She is looking forward and I believe this bill needs to be in place to avoid the very issue of incompetence now facing Jackson.

Anonymous said...

“Feel-good piece of legislation to help her with the rapidly dwindling population of conservative (white) voters”, does this give you pleasure, if so does that make you racist, or a bigot?

Anonymous said...

I'm here for this. Way to go, Shanda!

Anonymous said...

What good will come out of this? The mayor is elected by the voters. Then a smaller number of people can kick him to the curb and the people can elect them again. Sounds like something Jackson would come up with. Now they can have an election every month and elect the same people over and over.

Anonymous said...

It's not important that Shanda carefully think this thing through. The only thing important is that she rushes to the printer, files it and winds up in the paper and on the blogs.


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