Group challenges Norman recall ruling
NORMAN — Leaders of the group trying to remove Norman Mayor Breea Clark are asking a judge to decide whether Clark should be on a recall ballot even though a city official did not verify enough valid signatures to support a mayoral petition.
Unite Norman co-founders Sass an Moghadam and Russell Smith filed the protest against City Clerk Brenda Hall on Friday in Cleveland County District Court. Hall was responsible for verifying and counting the signatures submitted in support of recall petitions by Unite Norman for Clark and Ward 3 City Council member Alison Petrone.
“Petitioners protest the determination of the City Clerk as to the number of registered voters eligible to vote for the office of mayor in the City of Norman, Oklahoma ,” according to the civil filing. “Petitioners protest the determination of the City Clerk as to as to the number of valid signatures submitted with the petition to recall the mayor, Breea Clark.”
The recall petition for Clark required 18,154 signatures or 25% of registered voters. Hall verified 15,954 of the 20,661 signatures submitted by Unite Norman, citing duplicate entries, unverifiable names or names not matching registered addresses among the discrepancies.
Moghadam and Smith have requested a hearing “to hear testimony and argument to determine the sufficiency of Clark's petition. They've al so asked a judge to “determine that the petition is sufficient” and require Hall to present it to the council to call a recall election.
“We want to ensure that every single voter who signed the petition to recall the mayor has their voice fully heard and has their day in court,” Moghadam said in a news release. “We won't end our fight until the will of every voter is upheld.”
Council member Petr one sued Hall last month, after the city clerk certified 2,580 of the 3,444 signatures submitted by the group. The required number of signature store call Petrone is 2,573, or 25% of the 10,292 voters registered to vote in Ward 3. In the lawsuit, Petrone's Tulsa-based attorney calls the petition forms invalid because they did not contain verification forms required by law and include multiple “illegible signatures” and signatories that “do not appear in the voter registration database for the City of Norman.”