Workers begin counting signatures in mayor recall

Published 9:00 pm Monday, September 26, 2005

SPOKANE – Elections workers began counting signatures Monday on petitions calling for the recall of Mayor James West because of a sex and abuse-of-office scandal.

“So far, everything’s gone smoothly,” Spokane County Elections Supervisor Paul Brandt said after workers began checking signatures and addresses against voter registration cards.

The count, being watched by observers picked by both sides, is expected to take two weeks, Brandt said.

Recall supporters last week submitted petitions containing more than 17,000 signatures calling for West’s removal from office. If 12,567 of the signatures are valid, the recall could go to a special election as early as Nov. 29.

The recall campaign was prompted by articles in The Spokesman-Review newspaper that accused West of sexually abusing boys in the 1970s and of offering City Hall jobs, professional game tickets and cash to young men he met in an online gay chat room.

Meanwhile, a legal challenge to the recall is making its way through Spokane County Superior Court.

A visiting judge from another county will hear the lawsuit filed by Spokane lawyer Steve Eugster, who is seeking an injunction to stop the signature validation process.

Eugster, a former City Council member, argues that the signatures were collected illegally because they were gathered before the state Supreme Court issued its written reasons for allowing the recall campaign to proceed.

A visiting judge who has yet to be assigned is expected to set a schedule for hearings.