(The Center Square) – A bill by Tennessee state Rep. Torrey Harris would allow expand the recall power of citizens.
House Bill 1448 creates a process for a recall that begins with voters who live within the geographical boundaries of the elected official.
A voter or voters must request a petition from their local county elections office, according to the Memphis Democrat.
At least 66% of the voters who cast ballots in the last regular election must sign the petition. County election officials would verify the validity of the signatures before placing a recall question on the ballot, according to Harris.
A majority of voters must agree for the elected official to be recalled.
Memphis lawmakers and others have been at odds with the Memphis-Shelby County School Board, a situation that escalated after the superintendent was fired earlier this year. The school board situation played a part in the legislation, Harris said in an interview with The Center Square.
“It wasn’t the end all, be all as to the deciding factor of us doing it,” Harris said. “But what it was was that our members in our community were advocating for a recall process because there has been issues with our local county clerk. There’s been issues with other positions as well as school board. I think school board just triggered it.”
Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert has faced two attempts to remove her from office based on several complaints, including inaccurate financial reporting, according to Memphis television station WATN. A mediation appointment scheduled for Oct. 30 was cancelled, according to the report.
Harris has support from the other side of the aisle for his bill. Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, Harris said.
“I think it’s going to get quite a bit of support,” Harris said. “Obviously as the legislation continues to grow and people continue to talk about it, I will continue to have community meetings about it. I will continue to hear different opinions and voices and make sure that we are doing our absolute best to serve our constituents in whatever capacity and that I can get it along the finish line.”
Harris said he is looking at other bills, as well.
“My hope is that I’ll be able to work on making sure that the same legislation is in place for people like myself on the state level because right now, we don’t have that same process on the state level,” Harris said. “I know that is going to be much more difficult hurdle that I’ll have to try to accomplish but for now it kind just you know biting a little bit of the apple at a time.”
