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A supplemental petition filed by the petitioner seeking to initiate a recall election of City Councillor Gill M. Sorg, Dist.5, lacked the necessary number of valid signatures.
A total of 1,091 valid signatures were required to certify the petition for a recall election. A total of 923 valid signatures were verified today by the Las Cruces City Clerk’s office – 168 valid signatures short of the required number.
“People who felt they may have been misrepresented,” Udell Vigil, spokesperson for the City of Las Cruces said. “Or determined after they signed the petition that they didn’t want their name to appear on the petition after all did contact the city clerk’s office, and ask that their names be removed at which point they were.”
City Councilor Gill Sorg says those circulating the petitions were misrepresenting themselves, and that the recall effort goes against democracy.
“These people voted for me,” Sorg says. “And they voted me into office, and now by deceit and lies they think they can take me out. And finally, I give great credit to the voters in my district 5 that they saw through it and refused to sign, or if they were fooled they were willing to take their names off.”
The initial petition filed February 6, contained 996 valid signatures. The City Clerk’s office received 231 requests from voters who signed the initial petition to have their names removed. Only 208 signatures were eligible to be withdrawn, which brought the valid number of signatures to 788.
The supplemental recall petition filed March 26, contained 135 valid signatures, which brought the new total to 923 – 168 valid signatures short of the required number.
In addition, the petitioner seeking to recall Dist. 3 City Councillor Olga Pedroza today filed a supplemental petition after falling 363 valid signatures short in the initial effort. The City Clerk’s office now has until 5 p.m. Thursday, April 9, to certify the additional signatures.
Pedroza says the effort to recall her doesn’t have to do any kind of misconduct, but has to do with her political beliefs.
“It is not for me,” Pedroza said. “It is for my beliefs that are shared by so many people in the community. I think that the people who did this petition were thinking that it was going to be very easy because people were not in tune, not aware, and so on. And I think they are finding that it’s not so easy.”
A supplemental petition in the recall effort of Dist. 4 City Councillor Nathan Small is due at the City Clerk’s office by 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 7.
Information from city of Las Cruces