Recall Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

To remove an elected official from office, an electorate gathers signatures to petition for a referendum. The recall is traceable to Rome in 133 BCE, when Tribune Octabius was removed from office by a vote of the people because he vetoed a Senate bill, and to the Pennsylvania state Constitution of 1776, which in article VI declared the people possessed “a right, at such periods they may think proper, to reduce their public officers to a private station, and supply vacancies by certain and regular elections,” but its current form dates to nineteenth century Switzerland and to Los Angeles in 1903. Eighteen state constitutions and numerous local government charters in the United States authorize voters to employ a recall. Members of the U.S. Congress cannot be recalled.

Elected judges in seven U.S. states cannot be recalled, and the Montana statutory provision stipulates that a government official is not subject to the recall for performing a mandatory duty. A Minnesota statute authorizes county voters to employ the recall only if the charges against an officer are malfeasance or misfeasance. An officer, upon assuming office in the states of California and Washington, becomes subject to recall, but the recall cannot be employed against an officer during the first two months to one year of service. A 1995 British Columbia law authorizes Canadian voters to place on the ballot by petition the question of removing a member of the Legislative Assembly from office between elections. The Korean Assembly in 2005 authorized the recall to remove local government officials. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela survived a recall election in 2004.

The first step in the process is the filing and publishing or posting of a notice of intent to circulate a petition. Every petition must contain a declaration by the circulator that each signature is a genuine, and petitions must be filed within a stated number of days after the certifying officer notifies proponents that the wording of the petition is correct. Often the petitioners must gather certified signatures totaling 25 percent of the votes cast for all candidates in the previous general election for a governor or a local official. Kansas requires 40 percent, but California requires only 12 percent for officers other than members of boards of equalization, that address assessments of specialized types of real properties, reviews county assessment levels, and assesses taxes on insurers judges, and state legislators.

Eight states allow an official five days to resign after signatures are certified. A short list of reasons for the recall is included on the ballot, and an official typically can include a short rebuttal. Voters may choose simply to remove the government official or hold an election to replace the official. The most famous recall election resulted in the removal of Governor Gray Davis of California and the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as his replacement in 2003.

Arguments in favor of the recall include strengthening popular control, overcoming failures of the electoral system, reducing voter alienation, improving voter education, and encouraging removal of constitutional restrictions to, for example, lengthen terms of office. Opponents maintain that the recall restrains innovative officers, discourages potential candidates, increases costs, encourages abuse by special interest groups or the opposition party, and destroys judicial independence. They also note there are alternative removal methods and that voters’ accusations often do not warrant removal of an official from office.

Bibliography:

Bird, Frederick L., and Frances M. Ryan. The Recall of Public Officers: A Study of the Operation of the Recall in California. New York: Macmillan, 1912.
Gerston, Larry N., and Terry Christensen. Recall: California’s Political Earthquake. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2005.
Initiative and Referendum Institute. Guidebook to Direct Democracy. Amsterdam: Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe, 2005.
Klein, Joshua O. “Electoral Recall in Washington State and California Needs Stricter Standards to Protect Elected Officials from Harassment.” Seattle University Law Review 28 (Fall 2004): 145–172.
Matthews, Harry G., and C.Wade Harrison. Recall and Reform in Arizona. Tucson: Institute of Government Research, University of Arizona, 1973.
Munro, William B., ed. The Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. New York: D. Appleton, 1912.
Oberholtzer, Ellis P. The Referendum in America Together with Some Chapters on the Initiative and the Recall. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912.
Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the Recall Process in British Columbia. Victoria, B.C.: Elections B.C., a Non-partisan Office of the Legislature, 2003.
Smith, Rich. “Recall of Local Elected Officials in Kansas.” Journal of the Kansas Bar Association 70 (September 2001): 18–29.
Weinstein, Rachel. “You’re Fired! The Voters’ Version of the Apprentice: An Analysis of Local Recall Elections in California.” Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 15 (Fall 2005): 131–163.
Wilcox, Delos F. Government by All the People: Or the Initiative, the Referendum, and the Recall as Instruments of Democracy. New York: Macmillan, 1912.
Zimmerman, Joseph F. The Recall: Tribunal of the People. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1997.

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