Kshama Sawant recall petition officially certified, vote now set for December 7
Sep 29, 2021, 2:05 PM | Updated: Sep 30, 2021, 12:57 pm
Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant. (Seattle City Council, Flickr Creative Commons)
(Seattle City Council, Flickr Creative Commons)
King County Elections announced Thursday that it has officially certified the petition to recall Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant, with a vote now scheduled for Dec. 7, 2021.
Sawant recall campaign sets sights on winter vote
In order to qualify for the ballot, the petition needed 10,739 valid signatures from verified District 3 voters, constituting 25% of total votes cast in the last election for the district’s council seat in 2019. The recall campaign submitted 16,234 signatures in early September.
King County Elections ultimately verified over 11,000 signatures, well over the required threshold.
As for why Dec. 7 was selected for a vote, KCE noted that a February special election would have fallen outside the mandated post-certification 45 to 90-day range, and that the goal was to “reduce overlap between elections for our voters and to avoid the busy December holiday season as much as possible.”
“There’s no perfect date to schedule an election but our hope is that voters will show up, turn out, and use their voice in this election just like any other,” KCE Director of Elections Julie Wise said in a news release.
Sawant urges supporters to collect signature to force November vote
The petition itself outlines a series of charges against Sawant, ranging from her admitting protesters into City Hall after hours in 2020, to misusing council resources to promote a ballot initiative. The recall campaign also filed a separate complaint with the Seattle Ethics and Election Commission in mid-September, claiming she had violated state finance laws for not reporting and itemizing funds given to her by the city to challenge the recall in court in its nascent stages.
