Effort to Recall Mayor Denson Failed

The Clarke County Board of Elections and Voter Registration on Monday determined there weren't a sufficient number of valid signatures on . The particular effort, initiated by Jim Daniels, failed.

According to state law, a successful petition needs to have 100 signatures of Athens Clarke County voters who were registered to vote last fall and who could have voted in the election that put Mayor Denson in office. And those signatures could be collected only by someone who is him or herself a registered voter.

When Board of Elections officials examined the 115 names and signatures on the Daniels petition, they found Daniels had collected 18 of those signatures before he was registered to vote. Some names couldn't be read, weren't complete or didn't match information on the voter registration card.

Another eight signatures were disallowed because Board of Elections employee Gail Carter--who spent about 30 hours checking each name against the voter registration information--ruled them invalid. This was become they had not been registered to vote by early October of last year.

The final tally of valid signatures was 75, far from the required 100.

"Before someone attempts to initiate a recall, they should read this," said Board of Elections Supervisor Gail Shrader, waving a copy of the Georgia Recall Act of 1989, the 2001 edition. "It's a very formal process."