A group seeking to oust Hughes Mayor Grady Collum from office filed petitions too late to place the recall on the November ballot, Collum claims in a lawsuit filed against the county clerk and election commission in St. Francis County.
Collum, who was elected mayor in November 2014, claims that the petitions were filed Aug. 10, which he says was either 89 or 90 days before the Nov. 8 general election.
Collum said Tuesday that there was some question about whether to include the day the petitions were delivered when counting the number of days between the receipt of the petitions and the election date.
Arkansas Code Annotated 14-42-119 requires that petitions to remove an elected municipal official be filed between 105 days and 91 days before the next general election.
"[D]espite the fact that the petition for removal of Grady Collum were untimely ... County Clerk Emily Holley determined that 25 percent of the qualified electors of Hughes had petitioned for [Collum's] removal and wrongfully certified the matter," Jesse Daggett, a Marianna attorney who is representing Collum, wrote in the suit.
The action names Holley and St. Francis County Election Commissioners Frederick Freeman, Christopher Oswalt and Tammy Beck as defendants.
Collum, who served as Hughes' mayor for 12 years in the past, also owns a medical clinic in Marion.
Collum said Tuesday that the petition to recall him does not state any reason why those who signed it want him out of office.
"I'm straight up," he said. "There has been no wrongdoing alleged. If I was accused of something wrong, it'd be different. But to try to ruin my reputation when I've done nothing wrong is a miscarriage of justice."
Hughes Alderman Rudolph Robinson circulated the petitions and gathered more than 400 signatures, Holley said. The clerk certified 308 names. Hughes, in the southeast corner of St. Francis County, has a voting-age population of fewer than 1,200.
Holley said she received the petitions within the legally allowed time but took several days to certify them.
"We had three people working on it and counting the signatures," she said. "They turned it in on the right time. You can't verify over 400 signatures on the same day."
Holley, who is retiring as county clerk Dec. 31, said her deputies rejected several voters' names because the voters had signed the petition two or three times.
State Desk on 09/22/2016