A recall election seeking to remove Doris Black from her position on the Jackson-Madison County School System school board in Tennessee is scheduled for December 10, 2019. Black currently serves as the representative for District 4, Position 1. For the recall election to be successful, at least 66% of voters must vote in favor of the recall.

 

Black was targeted for recall along with District 2 representative Kevin Alexander due to allegations that they were too resistant to Superintendent Eric Jones and his plan for the district, according to district resident Robert Curlin. Alexander said that neither he nor Black had done anything unethical. Black said that she felt attacked by the recall effort against her.

 

Recall supporters had to collect approximately 1,151 signatures from residents of the school board’s District 4 to get Black’s recall on the ballot. That signature total was equal to 66% of the votes that Black received in the previous election. The recall effort against Alexander is still underway; petition signatures have not been submitted yet.

 

Residents of the district did not have the ability to recall board members legally until May 10, 2019, when House Bill 0983 was signed into law by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R).

 

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.