Your editorial stating Louisiana’s recall law needs to be strengthened is entirely correct. I know the law needs to be overhauled.
I worked on the effort to recall Rep. Joe Stagni from the state Legislature. Here are some facts I learned that prove your editorial is correct.
First, under current law, the number of signatures needed to trigger a recall vote is a percentage of “active voters” on lists that are not cleaned up when voters die or move out of the jurisdiction. That is wrong. The number required should not be a percentage of voter lists that everyone knows are inaccurate.
Second, the law can often require more signatures to hold a recall referendum than the number of votes the politician actually received. In Stagni’s case, over 6,000 signatures were needed, 25% of about 25,000 “active voters” in his district. But he was only elected with 1,775 votes.
That is crazy. If someone was elected with 1,775 votes how can it take over 6,000 signatures to hold a recall to decide if he should be fired? Although politicians can always be fired when they are up for reelection, that could be three or four years away. If you did a bad job, would your boss fire you?
The Home Defense Foundation recently started “Project Recall.” We say a recall should only require a number of signatures equal to a majority of the number of votes the politician actually got. We are willing to negotiate how much of a majority that should be, for example, 51% vs. 60%, but the number of required signatures should never be more than the number of votes the politician received.
That is not fair and not democratic. It protects lifelong politicians who confuse the terms “public service” and “self service.”
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