Petition for election to recall Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan can move forward, judge says
Source: Seattle Times
Petition for election to recall Mayor Jenny Durkan can move forward, judge says
July 10, 2020 at 11:41 pm Updated July 11, 2020 at 5:13 pm
By Elise Takahama
Seattle Times staff reporter
A King County Superior Court judge has approved a petition for an election to recall Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, opening the door for a campaign that’s gained steam over the last several weeks.
The ruling Friday on charges filed by a group of five people last month comes after weeks of local protests against racism and police brutality — sparked by the killing of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee to his neck for about eight minutes.
Once any recall petition is approved, signatures are needed to qualify for a special election ballot. The petitioners must, within 180 days, collect valid signatures from a number of voters equal to 25% of the votes cast in the last election. In this case, signatures from more than 50,000 Seattle voters would be needed.
The Durkan petitioners’ recall effort, known online as the “Fire the Mayor” campaign, accuses the mayor of “endanger[ing] the peace and safety of the community” by allowing police to “leak false information about fabricated crimes and threats to the media” and issuing a citywide curfew without sufficient notice to the public. The petitioners also accused Durkan of restricting certain property rights in downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill, the neighborhood where many of the protests took place.
“Jenny Durkan’s abuses of power, lack of foresight and failure to protect the public — and the peace — in Seattle leaves us with no choice,” petitioner Elliott Harvey wrote in a statement on the campaign’s website. “This is exactly the kind of case a recall is intended to address.”
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Read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/king-county-superior-court-judge-allows-petition-to-recall-mayor-jenny-durkan-to-move-forward/
