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Russell Pearce opponents file recall petitions by Jim Walsh - Jun. 1, 2011 12:00 AM Arizona Republic Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce's supporters and detractors are already lining up for a historic battle as the process of validating four crates full of recall petitions begins. More people signed petitions to recall Pearce than actually voted for him in the last election, organizers of the recall effort said Tuesday. The question now is how many of those signatures are valid. The Maricopa County Recorder's Office faces the daunting task of validating or rejecting the 18,315 signatures that Citizens for a Better Arizona turned in to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, more than double the 7,756 signatures they were required to collect by Tuesday's deadline to force a recall election. Pearce's supporters responded by organizing Citizens Who Oppose the Pearce Recall and setting up a website to accept donations. "I am so grateful that some of my friends have stepped forward to oppose this recall and defend the truth," Pearce said in a statement on the website, www.protectanamericanpatriot.com. "The personal, hurtful attacks by people who don't even live in Arizona must stop. Working together we can bring Arizonans together and move our State forward." Pearce became a national figure through his sponsorship and support for Senate Bill 1070. He collected 17,552 votes in his conservative west Mesa district in the November election to easily defeat two lesser-known candidates. Matt Tolman, chairman of the anti-recall committee, said he strongly suspects the recall group submitted thousands of duplicate signatures as well as many from outside Pearce's District 18. He said he doubts that there will be a recall election or that anyone would be interested in taking on Pearce. "I just don't trust them," Tolman said. "If someone runs against Russell, they will be committing political suicide down the road." Chad Snow, chairman of Citizens for a Better Arizona, said every signature was collected in District 18, most of them by a dedicated crew of about 400 volunteers. "We were surprised by the response we got in the district," Snow said. "I think we'll have over 10,000 that are valid." The next step in the recall process is for the Secretary of State's Office and the Maricopa County Recorder's Office to review the signatures to determine if they are valid. The speed of reviewing the signatures and working through the recall process will determine if the election is held in November, before the next legislative session, or in March, which would be midway through it. Yvonne Reed, a spokeswoman for the Recorder's Office, said all employees who know how to validate signatures will work on the project, with an Aug. 9 deadline for returning the petitions to the Secretary of State's Office looming. "It is time-consuming. Everyone who can verify signatures and knows the process will help," Reed said. Once the petitions are returned to the Secretary of State's Office, Pearce would be notified whether he has been recalled. He would have until Aug. 19 to resign from office or become a candidate in the recall election. If that happens, he would be the first Arizona legislator ever recalled, according to the Secretary of State's Office and several Arizona historians. Gov. Jan Brewer would have up to 15 days to call an election. "Until the verification process is completed, it's premature to speculate on when the governor would call the election," said Matt Benson, the governor's spokesman. Pearce's opponents unofficially proclaimed Tuesday Russell Pearce Recall Day. "Never has one been so extreme, so out of touch with the views of the people, that they have been recalled," Snow said. "Russell Pearce has created a toxic political climate in Arizona" that has hurt the state in numerous ways. Recall organizer Randy Parraz said that Tuesday's event was not a political rally, but it resembled one, with about 100 people marching from the state Senate building across the Capitol Mall to the Secretary of State's Office, led by an honor guard carrying the Arizona and U.S. flags. The group cheered loudly when children carried four crates of signatures into the building and when Parraz announced the number of signatures.
Russell Pearce files challenge to Arizona recall by Alia Beard Rau - Jul. 18, 2011 05:46 PM The Arizona Republic Senate President Russell Pearce has filed a legal challenge asking Maricopa County Superior Court to throw out the recall petitions collected against him and cancel the Nov. 8 election. The challenge filed by Pearce's attorney Lisa Hauser alleges numerous reasons why some or all of the petitions should be thrown out, including: • None of the petition forms comply with state requirements that a recall petition gatherer sign an oath on each sheet that the signatures are genuine. • The recall statement on each petition was misleading and did not clearly explain that singing it would support a recall election. • Some addresses and dates listed with a signature were not written by the signer. The complaint alleges that the Maricopa County verified the handwriting of names, but not addresses or dates. • Other signatures were collected by individuals who had also collected signatures determined to be fraudulent by the county should be disqualified. A court hearing will be scheduled. Maricopa County Elections Department spokeswoman Yvonne Reed said Monday evening that neither she nor elections director Karen Osborne had yet read the complaint. But she said she believes the county fully and correctly verified the submitted signatures. Pearce did not return calls for comment. Chad Snow, chairman of the recall effort, said he's confident the legal challenge will fail. "It's a very, very desperate attempt by a desperate man who wants to avoid an election he can't win," Snow said. "We made sure we were complying at every step because we kind of anticipated something like this."
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