Clark County Resident Files to Recall Clark County Sheriff
Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 -- 1:05 PM
-A statement of intent to circulate a recall petition has been filed in the Clark County Clerk's Office against Clark County Sheriff Greg Herrick.The petition was filed Monday by Clark County resident Mark Prior. Mr. Prior noted the reasons for the attempt on the statement as "failure to enforce husbandry law by vocally saying so" and "filing lawsuit against governing board and Clark County Law Enforcement Committee." Mr. Prior is referring to two incidences. The first, being in May of last year, in which Sheriff Herrick stated he wouldn't enforce portions of Act 377, the Implements of Husbandry Law, due to them being unconstitutional. The second, was a recent legal battle between Sheriff Herrick and the Clark County Law Enforcement Committee after he purchased a truck, which he had the budget to do, but did so without approval from the committee, which was done in the past with any vehicle purchase. In November, a judge dismissed the sheriff's case.
There are many legal hurdles this petition must pass before it appears on a ballot. County Clerk Christina Jensen stated the petition needs 2,848 signatures within 60 days, which is 25% of the votes cast for Governor in 2014. Once the signatures are filed in her office, she has 31 days to determine if they're sufficient and Sheriff Herrick would have the option to challenge its sufficiency within 10 days after they're filed. If the signatures are determined to be sufficient, a recall election would be scheduled for the 6th Tuesday and it would have to be a special election as there's no possible way it would make it on the April 5th ballot. The sheriff would automatically be a candidate and anyone else interested in running would need to obtain 200 signatures.
This isn't the first time Clark County has had a recall election for elected officials. There were recall elections back in 2001 and 2011 for County Board members. Sheriff Herrick was elected first in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. An e-mail request for comment to the sheriff went unanswered.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.