For the mayor or against him, residents should sign the recall petition

There seems to be a large amount of uncertainty about what the recent recall petition is even about, additionally, how a recall actually works. The uncertainty seems to be affecting people’s involvement in the issues.

Firstly, the ability to recall an elected official is something that ALL should embrace, regardless of which side of the issue you find yourself on. It is one of the only ways to deal with an elected official that is acting illegally, unethically, or violating the oath of office. Without it, citizens are stuck having to deal with those actions until the next election, which could lead to irreparable harm during the tenure.

With that, we should embrace the opportunity to hold our elected officials accountable and to ensure they are acting legally, ethically, and upholding the oath of office they took.

Next, people wrongly believe that by signing the “petition”, that they are removing the official by their signature.

That is not how this works.

The petition only serves as the trigger to actually allow the citizens to have a vote on whether or not Doug Roll should remain as mayor.

It does not remove him, it only triggers an election now, rather than waiting until the end of his term, where there could be a large amount of additional irreparable harm done to the community.

So, when being asked to sign the petition, you are simply signing that you agree that the voters should have the RIGHT TO VOTE on whether to keep him in office, or get someone new to replace him (not actually removing him by signatures).

Every citizen should be on the same side of that issue, regardless of whether you support Doug or not, you should want to allow an election to be had to decide if the community wants him to be mayor.

Remember, the petition isn’t removing Doug Roll. The petition is merely triggering a vote within 60 days (I believe is the time limit) to ALLOW THE VOTERS to decide if he is the mayor they want for the town, in light of the allegations in the petition.

Lastly, there are 16 days left in which to sign the petition to allow the VOTERS TO DECIDE the issue. If you support Roll, you should sign the petition. (Doug Roll should sign it as well, to show his confidence that the will of the people is for him to remain, and he wants to prove it)

Why would you sign a petition to recall someone you support? Because if he is the right person for the job, then the VOTERS WILL VOTE HIM BACK IN. There can be no better evidence that he is indeed the right person for the job, than to kibosh the recall effort by a showing of the will of the people in support.

If you haven’t signed the petition, and you are either for or against the removal, you need to look within yourself and ask yourself if you support free and fair elections? Do you support democracy? Do you feel that the people should be allowed to decide this issue, not the politicians themselves? If you say yes, regardless of what side of the issue you are on, you need to sign the petition and allow it to go to a vote.

Rob Hubbard

Libby