Photo Credit: David Minton, DentonRC
The effort to recall Denton City Councilman Joey Hawkins is a joke. Far from being a demonstration of the democratic process, a simple analysis of the voting records of those who signed the petition reveals that a bunch of people living in District 4 are apparently so concerned with the leadership of their city council representative that they couldn’t even take the time to vote in Denton City Council elections – ever.
In the name of “democracy,” the organizers of the petition to recall Hawkins found a hard time finding actual voters to sign the petition. For all their claims of how disenfranchised they are from the service of Mr. Hawkins, the petition circulators couldn’t find but a handful of actual city voters from District 4 to sign their petition to throw him out of office.
After reviewing the list of petition signers and comparing that with the public voter records, I have found the following facts to be absolutely shocking:
- Out of 131 people who signed the recall petition, 42 of them aren’t even registered to vote in Mr. Hawkins district and many of them aren’t registered to vote in the city. That’s 32% of the petition signers.
- That leaves only 89 eligible signatures on the ballot.
- Out of those 89, only 6 of them voted in the last city council election (2015).
- Out of those 89, only 18 of them voted in the 2014 city council election.
- Out of those 89, only 14 of them voted in the 2013 city council election – when Joey was first on the ballot (and had an opponent).
- Out of those 89, 59 of them have never voted in a Denton City Council election. That’s 66% of the people who signed the petition.
What does all of this mean? Less than 20 actual voters from District 4 are responsible for triggering an official recall election of a sitting Denton City Councilman.