TheCaptainDamnIt t1_jbeg7b9 wrote on March 8, 2023 at 1:44 PM

Reply to comment by Expendable_Red_Shirt in Group backed by Sinclair Broadcast Group chair likely to push for referendum to allow Baltimore recall elections by aresef

I don't have time today to go back and pull it all up but if I'm remembering correctly the exact wording of how the recall elections should happen would allow a very dedicated minority of voters to recall the majority winner of an election. So even if the mayor was popular, as long as you had a really strongly motivated opposition party, even if that party was much smaller, it would basically have a veto over the majority of voters. That's what they are going for with it.

Cryptizard t1_jbeh37w wrote on March 8, 2023 at 1:51 PM

That is not true. A minority can call the election (because you can’t be expected to get hundreds of thousands of signatures) but it still takes a majority vote to actually recall.

TheCaptainDamnIt t1_jbeiioy wrote on March 8, 2023 at 2:02 PM

Yes that's why I said "really strongly motivated opposition", since once the minority gets the recall as long as they show up in strong numbers they have a better chance of 'winning' the recall then they did in the original election.

Let's say you have a minority party who's candidate get 30% of the vote and they lose to the 70% majority. That 30% will be able to force a recall election almost immediately, then the 70% that just voted originally for the winner will have to turn out again in almost the same numbers as for the first election to win (which they almost certainly won't).

They way it's setup basically allows the minority to force new elections until they get a low enough overall voter turnout to win. Like I said this allows for a dedicated minority to basically harass the rest of the electorate into perpetual campaigns and voting just to let the majority winner serve out the original terms even if they have majority support.

Cryptizard t1_jbej9oh wrote on March 8, 2023 at 2:08 PM

Does this happen in the 19 states that already have recall elections?

TheCaptainDamnIt t1_jbemnic wrote on March 8, 2023 at 2:33 PM

Not really, but the push for recalls like this is a relatively new tactic for the right-wing, so I'd guess we'll find out over time if it's as exploitable in other states as they push there.

One thing that did stand out to me was since this proposal is built off of language that's in Baltimores original charter it left a lot more room for exploitation from the minority party than if you'd build a recall system from the ground up (with the goal of being fair in the first place). But I think that's the point though.

And hey, sorry but I gotta drop out and get off reddit for the day. I do sometimes have a job...ha