As we reported yesterday, the recent decision by Amarillo City Council to advance another civic center plan has some calling for the mayor and council members who voted for the new plan to resign. With many feeling critical of the move, some of our readers have been asking just what it would take to recall the mayor or city council members.

To answer this question, let’s first take a look at the city’s charter. According to Article II, Section 24, a petition seeking a recall election “shall be signed by at least thirty (30) percent of the registered voters within the city.” Additionally, one-fifth of those signing the petition must “certify that at the election at which the officer or officers was or were elected, they voted for the election of such officer or officers proposed to recalled.”

While it is difficult to get an exact number on the number of registered voters in Amarillo, our research team estimates this number to be about 115,000. This would mean a recall petition would need nearly 35,000 signatures. This is difficult enough, but what about the one-fifth of those signatures needed to certify that they voted for the person being recalled?

According to our estimates, this would mean that 6,900 people would need to certify they voted for the person they are attempting to recall.

In the May 2021 local election, Mayor Nelson received 10,960 votes, Cole Stanley received 9,582 votes, Freda Powell received 10,993 votes, Eddy Sauer received over 11,129 votes, and Howard Smith received 9,693 votes. This would mean, in order to recall Mayor Nelson or Councilmember Powell, or Councilmember Sauer, about 63% of those who voted for them would need to sign. To recall either Councilmember Stanley or Councilmember Smith, about 72% of those who voted for them would need to sign.

(It might be worth noting that those currently calling for resignations of the mayor and council have not called for Stanley’s resignation, as he was the only one to vote against the new civic center plan.)

This would also only be the first step in the process, as the next step would be a recall election, where a majority of voters would need to vote to remove the officeholder. In other words, while it might be technically possible to recall elected officials in Amarillo, the barriers to such a recall make such a move impractical.