State election officials say that the groups working to recall Arizona’s state Senate President Russell Pearce (R), the man behind the state’s controversial immigration law, have successfully collected enough signatures to force an election.
On Friday, Elections Director Amy Bjelland certified 10,365 signatures from the recall petititions. 7,756 were needed to force the election.
The election will happen on November 8th unless Pearce successfully challenges the recall in court. And though Pearce’s attorney is reviewing the signatures, he said is will not likely mount a legal challenge. “I’m ready for an election,” he said, the Arizona Daily Star reports.
Citizens For A Better Arizona, which describes itself as a “coalition of concerned citizens committed to improving the quality of life of all Arizonans,” filed the petition in May for the recall. The group opposed, among other things, Pearce’s flirtations with tentherism and birtherism, his opposition to the Fourteenth Amendment, and his authoring of the state’s controversial immigration crackdown.
“I know they’ve induced some good people” to sign, Pearce told the Daily Star. “I know there are some good people who just disagree with what I’m doing.”
Gov. Jan Brewer (R) is legally required to call the election within 15 days of the certification, and then Pearce opponents have until September 9 to file a nominating petition with at least 621 signatures.
