Voters to decide whether to recall three Idaho school board members
This Friday, Ballotpedia will release its annual mid-year recall report, where we’ll take a closer look at the recall trends across the country so far this year, and compare them to prior years. Just to give you a small taste, here’s an update on a recent recall effort in Idaho.
Recall efforts against Tim Winkle, Alicia McConkie, and Marianne Blackwell of the Middleton School District board of trustees in Idaho were certified by the Canyon County Elections Office earlier this month and will appear before voters on August 27.
Recall organizer David Morgan said the effort against Winkle and McConkie was prompted after they voted to accept the superintendent’s personnel recommendations—which did not renew the contract of the high school principal—at a May 6 board meeting. The recall petition against Blackwell said she “set an unprofessional and unacceptable precedent for school board trustees” and violated the board’s code of ethics.
Recall supporters also targeted another board member—Kirk Adams—but the petition was rejected by the county because he had not yet served 90 days in office. The school board’s fifth member resigned in April due to personal reasons.
Winkle said that since the decision not to renew the principal’s contract was a personnel matter, the board was limited in what they could share with the public. McConkie said she has served the best she could for the last two years and felt she was being targeted for recall over a single decision. Blackwell has not responded to the recall effort against her.
In order for the Middleton School District board members to be removed from office, a majority of voters must vote in favor in the recall election. Additionally, the number of voters who cast ballots in favor of the recall must also be higher than the total number of people who voted for the officeholders when they were last up for election. In the May 2017 election, 253 voters cast ballots in McConkie’s district and 82 cast ballots in Blackwell’s district.
In 2018, Ballotpedia covered a total of 206 recall efforts against 299 elected officials.Of the 123 officials whose recalls made it to the ballot, 77 were recalled for a rate of 62.6 percent. That was higher than the 56.9 percent rate and 56.3 percent rate for 2017 and 2016 recalls, respectively.
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