NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— In a few days we will know how many signatures the Mayor Cantrell recall petition collected, but with court hearings looming, what does this mean for a recall election actually happening?
Even though the Registrar of Voters has until Wednesday to count and verify all the signatures, political analysts are predicting with all the legal battles it could be a while before we actually know if there will be a recall election or not.
The major legal battle right now are the Mayor’s lawsuits against the Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, claiming the agreement made with recall organizers to move 25,000 names from the active rolls. The Mayor’s attorneys claim this was unconstitutional and the Secretary did not legally have the right to do so.
It is still unknown if lowering the threshold will even make a difference in the final signature count.
Political analyst Jeff Crouere believes the final count of signatures will be somewhere in the “gray area” between the higher and lower threshold.
He believes recall organizers will continue to fight, but so will the Mayor.
Because this recall is unchartered territory, there are still many questions left unanswered.
“We don’t even know what the threshold is. We don’t know how many petitions will be valid. We don’t know the process being used to count the petitions. It is a very complicated, confusing situation,” Crouere said.
Crouere believes the Mayor’s lawsuits have validity and poke holes in that agreement to lower the threshold. He thinks the law could work in the Mayor’s favor on that issue. So far no court hearings have been set yet.
Once the Registrar of Voters counts and verifies the signatures, the information will be sent to Governor John Bel Edwards as well as Mayor Cantrell.
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