Douglas Smith recall, District of Columbia (2012)

• Recall efforts
  • Recall efforts by state
  • Recall efforts by office
  • Recall efforts by year
  • Upcoming recall elections
• Local recalls
  • City council recalls
  • Mayoral recalls
  • County commission recalls
  • County official recalls
  • School board recalls
  • Sheriff recalls
  • Special district recalls
• State and federal recalls
  • State executive recalls
  • State legislator recalls
  • U.S. Congress recalls
• Laws governing recall
  • States that have pre-petition signature requirements for recalls
  • States that require grounds for recalls
• Analysis
  • What are recalls?
  • Recall terms
  • 2024 year-end analysis
  • 2024 mid-year analysis
  • 2023 year-end analysis
  • 2023 mid-year analysis
  • 2022 year-end analysis
  • 2022 mid-year analysis
  • 2021 year-end analysis
  • 2021 mid-year analysis
  • 2020 year-end analysis
  • 2020 mid-year analysis
  • 2019 year-end analysis
  • 2019 mid-year analysis
  • 2018 year-end analysis
  • 2018 mid-year analysis
  • 2017 year-end analysis
  • 2017 mid-year analysis
  • 2016 year-end analysis
  • 2016 mid-year analysis

District of Columbia Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner recall
Officeholders
Douglas Smith
Recall status
Recall approved
Recall election date
February 28, 2012
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2012 Recalls in District of Columbia District of Columbia recall laws Special district recalls Recall reports

A vote about whether to recall Douglas Brown from his elected position as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Washington, D.C. took place on February 28th, 2012. Smith was recalled from his seat. The election was initially too close to call due to uncounted absentee ballots. Smith, who represented district 4B04 in Ward 4 prior to his recall, was serving his first term.

Background

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners were created in 1974 by referendum. ANCs are considered to be grassroots representatives of the people to the D.C. government. There have been four recalls of ANCs: Theodore Jacobs of district 2E03 in 1993, Raymond Dickey of district 5A04 in 1999, Paul Montague of district 4B07 in 2003, and Charles E. Matiella of district 1A08 in 2003.

Reasons for recall

A group called Concerned Citizens of Brightwood East was behind the recall effort. The group's president, John Beverly, said, "We have had a lack of representation from our ANC. We have not had any response from him. We have not had any communications with him. He does not report to us what is going on in the ANC. We have a lot of citizens who are seniors and retirees and they do not have access to the Internet. Smith does not print flyers to inform us of anything that is going on and we need more professional responsiveness to our needs." Residents also expressed unease with Smith's alleged support for a Wal-Mart in the District. Beverly said, "There was an important meeting that took place last year about the Wal-Mart and he did not tell the residents about it. When some of us tried to contact him about that, he could not get through because his voice mail was full."

Smith's response

Smith said, "I believe that the recall is wrong and it is not a fair effort. The reasoning behind it is not sound. I have done nothing to justify a recall."

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in the District of Columbia

Residents needed to successfully gather signatures from 10% of registered voters in district 4B04, or about 200 signatures. The recall election took place on February 28th, 2012.

Election results

Preliminary results indicated that there were 75 votes in favor of recalling Smith and 59 votes in favor of retaining Smith. However, 16 absentee and 8 special ballots have yet to be counted, meaning that it is unclear whether or not Smith has been recalled. When votes were certified in March, Smith was recalled.

See also

• Laws governing recall in the District of Columbia
• Political recall efforts, 2012
• City council recalls

External links

• Recall in the District of Columbia