An effort in Avon, Colorado, to recall Mayor Sarah Smith Hymes and Councilmembers Amy Phillips and Tamra Underwood was initiated in August 2020. Recall organizers had until October 12 to submit 496 valid signatures for each official. There were about 600 signatures submitted against Hymes and Underwood on the day of the deadline. On October 19, Avon Town Clerk Brenda Torres announced that not enough valid signatures had been submitted. Torres found 425 signatures valid in the recall effort against Underwood. There were 445 signatures validated against Hymes. Recall organizers have until November 3 to challenge Torres’ decision.
The recall against Phillips was found invalid because she is up for re-election on November 3.
The recall effort was initiated in response to the Avon Town Council deciding to leave in place a 2% real estate transfer tax, which collects $2.5 million annually. In a press release sent to Vail Daily, the recall committee organizing the effort said that the tax “puts Avon property sellers at a huge disadvantage when compared to our neighboring communities.”
In response to the recall effort, Hymes said, “Two of the people involved in this recall ran for election last time. They could have run candidates in the 2020 election, but they didn’t think they could succeed, so they’re choosing this backdoor way. They are wasting an enormous amount of town resources in pursuit of this.”
Underwood said about the recall effort, “I essentially find it nothing but an intimidation and bullying tool to discourage people from running for council in Avon, in particular female people running for council in Avon.”
In 2019, Ballotpedia covered a total of 151 recall efforts against 230 elected officials. Of the 66 officials whose recalls made it to the ballot, 34 were recalled for a rate of 52%. That was lower than the 63% rate and 57% rate for 2018 and 2017 recalls, respectively.
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