Number of county commissioner recalls falls sharply in 2023


Ballotpedia has identified eight county commissioners (or equivalent county-level officeholders) targeted for recall across the country as of June 2023. This is a sharp decline from the 33 county commissioner (and equivalent) recall targets that had been tracked at this time in 2022. Recall attempts against county commissioners slowed significantly in the second half of 2022, with a total of 40 recall targets by the end of the year. Compared to 2021, the 2022 number also represented a slight drop in the number of recall targets, with 47 total recall targets in 2021.

The totals from both 2021 and 2022 represented an increase from prior years. From 2014 to 2020, there was an average of 13.7 county commission recall targets per year. As of mid-year 2023, the trend of county commission recalls resembled 2020, which had almost the same number of recall targets in June. 

Only one recall election of a county commissioner has gone to the ballot so far in 2023. Jeffrey Kent Davidson of the Sabine Parish Police Jury in Louisiana was recalled by voters on April 29 by a margin of 208 yes votes to 37 no votes. 

Three recall attempts against county commissioners in 2023 did not go to a vote, and one county commissioner resigned from office before a recall could be scheduled. Three recall attempts were still underway as of the end of June 2023.

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