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Steve Harris recall, Franklin County Commission, Kansas (2016)
| Franklin County Commission recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| Recall election date |
| November 8, 2016 |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2016 Recalls in Kansas Kansas recall laws County commission recalls Recall reports |
An effort to recall Steve Harris from his position on the Franklin County Commission in Kansas was launched in June 2016. On November 8, 2016, Harris was successfully recalled.[1]
Harris had been absent from meetings since April 13, 2016, because he took a human resources position at the Department of Veteran Affairs in Topeka. Residents questioned whether Harris could fulfill his duties and called for him to resign. When Harris announced at a meeting that he would not resign, they said that would petition for a recall election. Harris said he had emailed his vote and comments for every agenda item to county officials. His emailed votes were not counted or included in meeting minutes. He also stated that his employer would begin in July to allow him to use accrued leave time to attend the meetings.[2] Proponents submitted signatures in August, which were verified by the county clerk.[3]
Recall vote
| Recall Steve Harris Question | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
 Recall | 1,283 | 74.33% | ||
| Retain | 443 | 25.67% | ||
Recall supporters
Richard Oglesby, a member of the Franklin County Republican Central Committee, said it wasn't enough to submit input through email: "If by some rare occurrence people showed up and gave public comments or testimony about an issue and you did not have the availability to hear that, would that not make a difference in how you might vote?" Another person said Harris was hurting taxpayers since he has two public positions.[4]
Recall opponents
Harris told those at the meeting that he still felt he could be of value to the commission's work. "I'm going to forge ahead in the same manner that I've been doing the last several months," he said. "Nothing from my spandpoint has changed as far as what I'll continue to do, the way I'll continue to do it.[4]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Kansas
Sponsors of the recall submitted an application stating the grounds for the recall, which was approved by the county clerk on July 13. Proponents had 90 days to collect 460 valid signatures, which is equal to 40 percent of the number of persons that voted in the last preceding general election for the office of the targeted official.[4][5] Signatures were turned in on August 19, and they were verified by the county clerk's office the following week.[6] The election occurred on November 8, 2016.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Steve Harris' Franklin County recall. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Ottawa Herald, "Commissioner Harris recall successful," November 8, 2016
- ↑ The Ottawa Herald, "Patrons plan to petition county commissioner," June 28, 2016
- ↑ The Ottawa Herald, "Petition verified in Harris recall," August 25, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedintro - ↑ The Ottawa Herald, "Petition approved, signatures being sought for commissioner recall," July 16, 2016
- ↑ The Ottawa Herald, "County clerk busy verifying Harris recall petition," August 20, 2016
