Laws governing recall in Arizona
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Arizona Recall Law allows for the recall of any public official according the recall articles of the Arizona Constitution.
Filing the recall petition
A recall can be filed against any public officer on any grounds. The recall may not be filed until after 6 months for all officials other than state legislators (5 days after start of first session for legislators.) A recall petition must be filed at the office in which the officer being recalled files for nomination.
The petition must also contain a general statement explain the recall and not exceed 200 words. This petition must be signed by the sponsors who swear an oath that all signatures collected will be valid signatures.
Signature requirements
- Main article: Arizona signature requirements
The signature requirement is 25 percent of the number of votes cast in the last election for that office.
For this reason not many statewide recalls are successful. However, the voters managed to collect enough petition signatures to trigger a recall election of Governor Mecham in 1988. Before the scheduled recall election took place the state legislature removed the governor from office using the impeachment process. Local recalls are very common in Arizona however.
Recall election
If enough signatures are gathers a recall election will be held. All qualified candidates can run against the incumbent. Whoever gets the most votes wins the office. If the incumbent wins he/she remains in office and no other recall can take place during that term unless the proponents pay the cost of the prior recall election.
