Elnora Gavin recall, Benton Harbor Area Schools, Michigan (2024)

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Benton Harbor Area Schools recall
Officeholders
Elnora Gavin
Recall status
Did not go to a vote
Signature requirement
Signatures equal to 25% of voters in the school district in the last gubernatorial election
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2024 Recalls in Michigan Michigan recall laws School board recalls Recall reports

An effort to recall Elnora Gavin from her position on the seven-member Benton Harbor Area Schools Board of Education in Michigan did not go to a vote in 2024. The Berrien County Election Commission rejected the petition at a clarity hearing on June 17, 2024.

Recall supporters

Jerry Edwards, a former Benton Harbor city commissioner, filed the recall petition against Gavin. The petition lists Gavin's vote against hiring Title 1 staff during a school board meeting on March 12, 2024. “Now is not the time to say we don’t want the help,” Edwards said.

Recall opponents

In reaction to the recall petition, Gavin said her vote was not against hiring staff in the school district. “I voted against a request for our school district to hire a staff person who would be placed at an outside private school,” Gavin said in a written statement. “Common sense dictates that Benton Harbor’s public resources should be used to recruit and retain educators who work with Benton Harbor public school students.”

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in Michigan

No specific grounds are required for recall in Michigan. To get a recall on the ballot in Michigan, recall supporters must collect signatures equal in number to 25% of voters in the jurisdiction in the last gubernatorial election. They have 60 days between the collection of the first signature and the collection of the last signature on the petition. Recall petitions are eligible to collect signatures for 180 days.

2024 recall efforts

See also: School board recalls

Ballotpedia tracked 40 school board recall efforts against 83 board members in 2024. Recall elections in 2024 removed 14 members from office, including three who resigned before the election, and retained seven members in office. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.

The chart below details the status of 2024 recall efforts by individual school board member.