Group trying to recall Ferguson Mayor is 27 signatures short
A group gathering signatures to force a recall election of Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III was 27 signatures short of the 1,814 needed, according the St. Louis County Board of Elections.
Eric Fey, the election board director, said the group submitted a total of 3,336 signatures.
Phillip Gassoway, the leader of Ground Level Support, the activist group trying to get Knowles out of office, said the recall election should still move forward because the city missed a deadline in certifying them.
According to the City Charter, Ferguson had five days to verify the signatures, Gassoway said. The group handed the signatures in on Friday, he said, so that deadline passed on Wednesday.
"Ferguson should still lose any rights to object to the validation of any signatures," Gassoway said.
Mayor James Knowles did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Jeff Small, a city spokesman, said Ferguson would issue a statement this afternoon.
"This will challenged and litigated," said Nick Kasoff, a member of a committee of five residents formed to recall Knowles. "We are confident that when a full review is conducted the petition will be certified."
Earlier this month, the group gathered 1,008 valid signatures, about 800 fewer than needed, said Eric Fey, director of the St. Louis County Board of Elections. The group handed in 1,984 signatures, but 562 were discounted because they didn’t come from registered voters, and 366 were tossed out because they were not from voters registered in Ferguson.
During the past couple of weeks, the group group used voter registration lists to go door to door to
collect another 1,150 signatures from eligible voters, Gassoway said.
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