Activists from Ward 2 submitted 5,588 petitions to the D.C. Board of Elections on Monday in an attempt to trigger a recall vote for Councilmember Jack Evans. Triggering a recall election requires 10 percent of registered voters in a ward to sign a petition, a total of 4,949 according to a press release from the Ward 2 Citizens Recall Campaign.
Evans, who represents Georgetown, has been asked to resign by other members of the council, and a survey conducted by the Washington Post found 64 percent of citizens think Evans should step down.
“I offered to suspend this campaign on multiple occasions, but Mr. Evans has refused to either resign or indicate that he would not seek reelection, so for the last 6 months we have spoken to thousands of voters who overwhelmingly support restoring integrity and these signatures are proof,” Recall Campaign Chairman Adam Eidinger said in the press release.
Evans, the longest ever serving member of the Council, has been under investigation since December 2018, and a recently released report highlighted 11 instances since 2014 where Evan allegedly used his position on the Council to benefit himself through his private consulting firm, NSE Consulting LLC, as well as clients of two law firms where he used to work.
The Recall Campaign’s statement also said they believe they might have actually collected signatures from more than 20 percent of “Ward 2 voters who actually live in the District,” finding people still on the voter rolls no longer living in homes they canvassed.
The Board of Elections now has 30 days to certify all of the petitions, while Evans and his supporters will have the opportunity to review the petitions and make any challenges. If the Board certifies that there are enough petitions, they must schedule the recall vote to take place within 114 days. It only takes a majority of voters to have Evans recalled. If that happens, Evans would be the first member of the D.C. Council to be recalled since the creation of the council under the Home Rule Act of 1973.
