Recall Petition Effort Underway

The Citizens of Overland for Good Government (C.O.G.G.) started their Recall Petition effort this weekend. There has been some confusion about this for a few residents so I would like to clear the air a bit.

This petition cannot Recall Mayor Ann Purzner by itself.
The petition only seeks to hold a Recall Election,
where all the registered voters of Overland,
whether they signed this petition or not,
have the opportunity to vote to
support or oppose Recalling the Mayor.

The petition, once successfully completed and certified, simply allows the residents to vote on this issue. It will be up to the majority of Overland voters whether the Mayor is eventually recalled or not. Also, you have to be a registered voter to sign the petition. That means you have to be on the Election Board's registration rolls. If you are not on the Board's list, you can't sign. This is simply one of the rules that have to be followed for the petition to be certified.

However, if you find you are not on the list of registered voters and you are sure you should be, contact the St. Louis County Board of Elections at: (314) 615-1800. It would not be the first time someone fell off the registered voter rolls in error. You probably won't be able to sign the petition, but hopefully you can resolve it so that you'll be able to vote in November, and eventually vote in a Recall election should the petition effort be successful.

As we got closer to being able to start working on this effort, I had concerns. I do believe that the actions of the Mayor have left us with no other option but to seek a recall, and I wanted to work on it personally. However, I was not sure if I was going to participate. I was concerned that participation would call my non-partisan status into question, and could cause others to see me as biased. I am not, but as we all know, perception is more important than reality these days.

However, thanks to Councilman Knode's email to me, I realized that no matter what you do, if you do not agree with the Mayor or her supporting Council members 100% it seems you will be seen by them and their supporters as biased and part of an imaginary conspiracy. Since they made it clear that no matter what efforts I make to be fair, I will apparently be painted as a partisan by them I feel free to work on this effort. They have already decided that my analysis is biased (though they refuse to challenge any of it with specifics), so I really had nothing to lose.

We did not go to people's doors to "sell" the recall. We explained it was a petition seeking a recall election, asked if the listed registered voters were home and if they were interested in signing it. If someone wanted more information on the issues we suggested they look into it futher and if they decided later that they wanted to sign later they could always contact COGG at: (314) 429-4480. We did not debate those who opposed the effort, we just asked if all the registered voters in their home felt the same and if so we marked our list so that it would not be visited again (which eliminates a possible annoyance for them).

I walked Saturday and Sunday. My partners and I were a bit surprised by how few people were home. It seems a lot of people have things to do on the weekend (I suspect we will get to speak to more people during the week). We didn't get to talk to a lot of residents. However, the reaction of those we did talk to was pretty telling.

They say that when you do any sort of effort that requires knocking doors, it takes a few houses to get comfortable. However, we had no issue at the very first house we came to on Saturday. In fact, we barely set foot on the sidewalk and the residents there came running out, asking if we had the petition to recall the Mayor and where do they sign. After verifying that one of the residents was on the registered voter rolls, she was able to sign, and we suggested to her spouse that he contact the Election Board to inquire about his registration status because he was confident he was a registered voter (but was not on the list). Before we left the residents there waved and told their neighbors we were coming, then sent us on our way with a lot of encouragement. What a great way to start.

As we went on we found that the majority or residents we talked to had similar feelings. On Saturday we knocked approximately 200 doors, and were able to talk to 34 residents. Of those 34 we met, 27 signed the petition. One resident who did not want to sign said she wanted to look into the issue more before deciding. The 6 refusals we had were pretty interesting as well. 2 of those who did not want to sign were pleasant but had interesting reasons. One said he was selling his house and was not sure he should sign, the other was concerned about retaliation. Of the other four, 2 were pleasant saying they voted for the Mayor, and did not want to recall her. The last 2 where somewhat angry in their opposition, though not abusive in any way.

So, how did we do Saturday? Of the residents we were able to talk too, 79% or so signed the petition. Less than roughly 1% felt they did not have enough information to decide. Approximately 17% choose not to sign, with 2/3rds of those folks were pleasant and even friendly in their opposition.

Sunday was similar for us. We only found 26 people at home. Of those, 19 signed our petition while 7 chose not too. Sunday was a better day for us opposition wise as everyone was friendly, they simply didn't agree. So, how did Sunday break down for us? 73% signed the petition. 26% chose not to, and 100% of those opposed were friendly about it.

Out of dozens of teams of resident volunteers, our team collected 46 signatures from 61 residents we were able to talk to in a total of 6 hours work. That is about a 75% signing rate in Ward 1, from what I've experienced so far. Most other teams said they had similar experiences.

The process was very interesting. I'm pleased with the way most of those who opposed the effort were friendly about it. My limited experience so far seems to suggest that most Overland Residents, whether they support or oppose a Recall effort, recognize this is not personal. I do not have issues with the Mayor or her supporting Council members personally. I have had pleasant conversations with several Council members whose political views I oppose. Just because I don't support their politics, doesn't mean I can't laugh with them about the antics of children and the like. It was nice to see that most others seem to separate the political and the personal as well.

From what I heard from other teams, most seemed to have had similar experiences. If the majority of the teams had 3 out of 4 registered voters sign the petition as well, then I imagine we not only will have the 2500 signatures required, but will likely have more registered voters sign the petition than actually voted in the Mayoral election. That, would be a statement in itself.

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