Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Recall Effort Targeting Ventura County Supervisor Fails To Qualify For Ballot

An effort to put a recall measure on the ballot targeting Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks failed to meet to September 14th deadline for turning in necessary signatures.
Ron Dyar
/
Unsplash
An effort to put a recall measure on the ballot targeting Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks failed to meet to September 14th deadline for turning in necessary signatures.

Organizers failed to turn in the needed signatures by the deadline.

The effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom isn’t the only recall effort which ended Tuesday. A group trying to recall a Ventura County Supervisor failed to meet the September 14 deadline to qualify the proposal for the ballot.

A group of people upset with business shutdowns, and operating restrictions mandated by Ventura County to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus, targeted County Supervisor Linda Parks.

Organizers took out petitions in April to try to qualify the recall effort for the ballot. But, a few week ago the campaign realized it was having trouble gathering the needed 11,000 plus qualified signatures and asked the County Clerk’s office for more time.

The county said no, noting that it doesn’t have that kind of discretion because recall timelines are established by state law.

Ironically, while recall organizers were upset over COVID safety guidelines, in a letter to the county they cited as a reason for requesting more time that people were afraid to talk to signature gatherers because of safety concerns about the virus.

The failure to qualify the proposal for the ballot will save the county the millions it would have cost to hold a special election. Parks is set to leave office next year anyway. The Thousand Oaks based supervisor is in her fifth term in office, and can’t run again because of term limits.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.