McKinney Recall Petition: 7,400 Signatures Under Review, Results Expected Nov. 17

By R.J. Morales | TX3DNews

McKinney’s recall petition is now in full verification, with city staff reviewing more than 7,400 submitted signatures and a public report tentatively set for Nov. 17.

City Secretary Empress Drane told the City Council Monday that 5,805 valid signatures are required for the petition to move forward. She also confirmed that some people have asked to have their names removed before the count is finalized.

The petition targets Mayor Bill Cox and council members Ernest Lynch, Geré Feltus and Justin Beller.

Drane said each signature will be checked against Collin County voter-registration records to confirm the signer was a McKinney resident, eligible to vote in city elections and registered at the time of signing.

Some signers requested removal

Drane confirmed that the city received requests from people seeking to withdraw their signatures.

“There are some number of individuals who submitted requests to be removed from the document,” she told the council.

A signer may withdraw if the request was submitted before the petition was turned in. Recall organizers had already made efforts to remove some of those names, Drane said, and city staff will make sure qualifying requests are removed during verification.

The city did not say Monday how many people requested removal.

TX3DNews sent follow-up questions seeking the number of withdrawal requests, the number of submitted signature lines under review and additional details about the verification report. The city had not responded as of publication.

More than 500 petition pages returned

The city issued 750 petition blanks to the recall committee after approving its request to circulate the petition Aug. 12. More than 500 pages were returned with the submitted signatures.

“So again, that is the duty of our staff is to determine how many of those are actually valid,” Drane said.

The closest comparison is McKinney’s 2019 recall petition. City figures presented Monday show 3,313 signatures were collected and 3,062 were validated. That petition required 2,127 valid signatures.

The city also showed figures from a 2022 local-option petition, which followed different requirements. That effort collected 34,837 signatures, with 22,717 validated.

Submission did not mean certification

When the recall committee delivered the petition Sept. 25, city staff checked whether enough signatures appeared to be included and whether the paperwork was complete enough to begin verification.

“That is not a statement as to whether the document itself is valid as a petition to move forward,” Drane said.

The city is now conducting the full review and tentatively plans to present its findings Nov. 17. Drane said the goal is for the report to be “transparent and checkable,” with the public able to see whether each signature was marked valid or invalid.

Disagreement over a deadline

The city and some recall supporters disagree over whether the charter sets a deadline for completing the review.

“There seems to be an understanding or an idea that there is a deadline in which to complete this work, which there is not,” Drane said.

Recall supporters have pointed to Section 135 of the City Charter, which they say provides a 30-day examination period for initiative and referendum petitions, and Section 145, which says recall petitions must conform to those provisions. They argue that the same 30-day period applies to recall petitions.

Section 146 separately directs the City Secretary to examine a recall petition “at once.”

Drane said the charter places responsibility for examining the recall petition with the City Secretary and that the city is working to complete the review in a timely manner while making sure the information is correct.

What happens next

If the petition is determined valid, each officeholder named in it would have five days from notification to decide whether to resign.

An officeholder who resigns would leave a vacancy to be filled by special election, and there would be no May recall election for that person. Those who do not resign would face a recall election in May 2027. If the measure fails, the officeholder remains in office. If it passes, a special election would be held afterward to fill the vacancy.

“So depending on any number of scenarios, there could be any number of elections up to three,” Drane said. “Or there could be no elections at all regarding a recall election.”

She added that there would be no additional election cost if the process results only in the regularly scheduled May 2027 election, but special elections would bring additional costs.

Once the review is complete, the city says the public will be able to examine the results for each submitted signature line.