Crime & Safety
Keep Cal Fire Campaign Turns in 9,983 Signatures for Recalls
The 120 days to gather signatures to recall Coastside Fire Protection District Board directors are up. Now San Mateo County Elections Office has 30 business days to verify the signatures.
Keep Cal Fire campaign members had 120 days to collect signatures after the San Mateo County Elections Office approved their petition on June 28, 2012, to recall Coastside Fire Protection District Directors Mike Alifano, Gary Riddell and Douglas Mackintosh, who want to get rid of Cal Fire and go back to a standalone department.
Last week, those 120 days were finally up. By Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, Keep Cal Fire volunteers turned in petitions to the San Mateo County Elections Office with a total of 9,983 signatures to recall Coastside Fire Protection District Directors Alifano, Riddell and Mackintosh with the following individual breakdowns:
Alifano – 3290 signatures
Riddell – 3366 signatures
Mackintosh – 3327 signatures
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Keep Cal Fire proponents continued to gather signatures up until the day they filed the petitions. This is because they need every signature they can get to make sure they qualify the petitions for the ballot. Their signature-gathering efforts included volunteers sitting outside New Leaf, signs and campaign collateral and a booth at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival.
County Elections now has 30 business days to verify each signature, or they may choose to verify a random sampling of signatures.
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If the number of valid signatures is greater than or equal to the minimum required number, County Elections certifies the petition as sufficient, notifies the proponents, and submits a certificate of sufficiency to the governing board.
Within 14 days after the meeting at which the governing body receives the certificate of sufficiency, the governing body issues an order for an election to be held. The election is held between 88 and 125 days after the issuance of the order.
Candidates may file nomination papers and declarations of candidacy after the order of the election is issued and up to 75 days prior to the date of the election.
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