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Current Status Bill Number:View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.4208 Type of Legislation:General Bill GB Introducing Body:House Introduced Date:19990601 Primary Sponsor:Tripp All Sponsors:Tripp Drafted Document Number:l:\council\bills\gjk\20658sd99.doc Residing Body:House Current Committee:Education and Public Works Committee 21 HEPW Subject:Greenville County School Districts Trustees, recall and removal of members, recall election through petition History Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved ______ ________ ______________________________________ _______ ____________ House 19990601 Introduced, read first time, 21 HEPW referred to Committee Versions of This Bill
TO PROVIDE A PROCEDURE FOR RECALLING AND REMOVING FROM OFFICE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OF GREENVILLE COUNTY INCLUDING REQUIREMENTS FOR A RECALL ELECTION INITIATED THROUGH A RECALL PETITION.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. (A) Members of the board of trustees from the School District of Greenville County may be recalled by the qualified electors of the district or of the election districts thereof in the manner provided in this section.
(B) The members of the board subject to recall may be recalled by the qualified electors entitled to vote for his successor.
(C) Physical or mental lack of fitness, incompetence, violation of his oath of office, official misconduct, or conviction of a felony offense enumerated in the statutory laws of South Carolina is the only basis for recall. No person may be recalled for performing a mandatory duty of the office he holds or for not performing any act that, if performed, would subject him to prosecution for official misconduct.
(D) The recall is cumulative and additional to, rather than a substitute for, other methods for removal of members of the board.
(E) Every person who is a qualified elector of the School District of Greenville County may sign a petition for recall of a member of the board elected from the district at large. However, if the member is elected from a defined single-member election district, a person must be a qualified elector in the election district to be eligible to sign a petition to recall the member elected from that election district and the signature requirements of subsection (G) apply only to persons registered in the appropriate election district.
(F)(1) A recall petition may not name more than one board member to be recalled.
(2) No recall petition against a board member may be approved for circulation, as required in subsection (J)(3) of this section, until he has held office for three months.
(3) No recall petition may be filed against a board member for whom a recall election has been held for a period of two years after the preceding recall election.
(G) Recall petitions for members of the board of the district must contain the signatures of qualified electors equaling at least fifteen percent of the number of persons registered to vote at the preceding election for that office in the district if the member is elected at large or in the election district from which the member is elected if not elected from the district at large.
(H)(1) Recall petitions must be filed with the entity which is required by law to accept the declaration of candidacy or petition for nomination for the office.
(2) If the appropriate filing official refuses to accept and file a petition for recall with the proper number of signatures of qualified electors, an elector within ten days after the refusal may apply to the circuit court for a writ of mandamus. If it is determined that the petition is sufficient, the circuit court shall order the petition to be filed with a certified copy of the writ attached as of the date when it was offered for filing originally. On a showing that a filed petition is not sufficient, the court may enjoin certification, printing, or the recall election.
(3) All suits or appeals therefrom must be advanced on the court docket and heard and decided by the court as expeditiously as possible.
(4) An aggrieved party may file an appeal within ten days after an adverse order or decision as provided by law.
(I)(1) The form of the recall petition shall be substantially as follows:
To the Honorable (name and office of filing officer): We, the undersigned qualified electors of the School District of Greenville County or the election district therein from which the below-named board member is elected respectfully petition that an election be held as provided by law on the question of whether , holding the office of , should be recalled for the following reasons: (Set out a general statement of the reasons for recall in not more than two hundred words). By his signature each signer certifies: I have personally signed this petition; I am a qualified elector of the School District of Greenville County or the election district therein from which the above-named board member is elected. (Insert election district number if applicable); and my residence and address are correctly written after my name to the best of my knowledge and belief."
(2) Numbered lines must follow the above heading. Each numbered line must contain spaces for the signature, address, and printed last name of the signer. Each separate sheet of the petition must contain the heading and reasons for the proposed recall as prescribed above.
(J)(1) The signatures on each petition must be placed on sheets of paper to be known as circulation sheets. Each circulation sheet must be substantially 8 l/2 x 14 inches or a continuous sheet may be folded so as to meet this size limitation. The circulation sheets must be ruled with a horizontal line 1 l/2 inches from the top. The space above the line must remain blank and must be for the purpose of binding.
(2) The petition, for purposes of circulation, may be divided into sections, each section to contain not more than twenty-five circulation sheets.
(3) Before a petition may be circulated for signatures, a sample circulation sheet must be submitted to an official of the entity with whom the petition must be filed in the form in which it must be circulated. The filing officer shall review the petition for sufficiency as to form and approve or reject the form of the petition stating his reasons within one week of receiving the sheet.
(4) The petition form submitted must be accompanied by a written statement containing the reasons for the desired recall as stated on the petition. The truth of purported facts contained in the statement must be sworn to by at least one of the petitioners before a person authorized to administer oaths.
(5) The filing officer shall number serially all approved petitions continuously from year to year.
(K)(1) Signed circulation sheets or sections of a petition for recall must be submitted to the office responsible for registration of electors in the county in which the signatures were obtained within three months of the date the form of the petition was approved under subsection (J).
(2) An affidavit, in substantially the following form, must be attached to each circulation sheet or section submitted to the election official:
" (Name of person circulating petition), being first sworn, deposes and says: I circulated or assisted in circulating the petition to which this affidavit is attached, and I believe the signatures thereon are genuine, are the signatures of the persons whose names they purport to be, and that the signers knew the contents of the petition before signing it.
________________________________
(Signature)
Subscribed and sworn
before me this day of
, _______
(Person authorized to take oaths)
(Title or notarial information) Seal".
(L)(1) The county election commission in each county in which a petition is signed shall verify and compare the signatures of each person who has signed the petition to assure that he is an elector in the school district or an election district thereof as appropriate and, if satisfied the signatures are genuine, certify that fact to the office with whom the recall petition is to be filed, in substantially the following form:
"To the Honorable (Name and title of filing office or officer):
I, , , (Title) of County certify that I have compared the signatures on sheets (specifying number of sheets) of the petition for recall No. attached, in the manner prescribed by law, and I believe (Number) signatures are valid for the purpose of the petition. I further certify that the affidavit of the circulator of the (sheet) (section) of the petition is attached and that the address is completed for each valid signature.
Signed (Date)
(Signature)
Seal (Title)".
(2) The certificate is prima facie evidence of the facts stated in it, and the office or officer receiving the recall petition may consider and count only the signatures as are certified. However, the officer with whom the recall petition is filed shall consider and count any remaining signatures of the registered voters which prove to be genuine, and those signatures must be considered and counted if they are attested to in the manner and form as provided contested ballots in general elections.
(3) The county election commission may not retain any portion of a petition for more than thirty days following the receipt of that portion. At the expiration of the thirty-day period, the commission shall certify the valid signatures on that portion of the petition and deliver it to the person with whom the petition is required to be filed.
(M) Upon filing the petition or a portion of the petition containing the number of valid signatures required under subsection (G), the official with whom it is filed shall give written notice immediately to the board member named in the petition. The notice must state that a recall petition has been filed, must set forth the reasons contained in it, and must notify the board member named in the recall petition that he has the right to prepare and have printed on the ballot a statement containing not more than two hundred words giving reasons why he should not be recalled. No statement of justification may be printed on the ballot unless it is delivered to the filing official within ten days of the date notice is given.
(N)(1) If the board member named in the petition for recall submits his resignation in writing, it must be accepted and become effective the day it is offered. The vacancy created by the resignation must be filled as provided by law, provided that the board member named in the petition for recall may not be appointed to fill the vacancy. If the board member named in the petition for recall refuses to resign or does not resign within five days after the petition is filed, a special election must be called unless the filing is within ninety days of a general election, in which case the question must be placed on a separate ballot at the same time as the general election.
(2) The call of a special election must be made by the Governor.
(O) The notice of a recall election must be in substantially the following form:
Notice is hereby given pursuant to law that a recall election will be held on (Date) for the purpose of voting upon the recall of who holds the office of ___________________________________________________
Dated at , ___________________________
_______________________________(Date)".
(P) A special election for recall must be conducted and the results canvassed and certified as provided by law. The powers and duties conferred or imposed by law upon election commissioners, and other public officials who conduct general elections in the School District of Greenville County are conferred and imposed upon similar officers conducting recall elections under the provisions of this section.
(Q)(1) The ballot at a recall election shall set forth the statement contained in the recall petition stating the reasons for demanding the recall of the board member and the board member's statement of reasons why he should not be recalled. The question of whether the board member should be recalled must be placed on the ballot in a form similar to the following:
FOR recalling _________________________who holds
the office of _______________________________
AGAINST recalling ______________________who holds
the office of _______________________________
(2) The form of the ballot must be approved by the Secretary of State or his designee.
(R) Expenses of a recall election must be paid by the school district.
(S) The board member named in the recall petition continues in office until he resigns or the results of the recall election officially are declared. If a majority of those voting on the question vote to remove him, the office becomes vacant and the vacancy must be filled as provided by law, provided that the board member recalled may not be appointed to fill the vacancy.
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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