Wisconsin Recall Election

The nation's most interesting election news today will be in Wisconsin, where recall elections are being held. Today's recall efforts are against six Republican state senators. Next week, recalls will be held against two Democratic senators.

The ability of voters to "recall" elected officials before end of term was part of a package of reform measures advocated by Populist and Progressive groups in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The package usually included initiative, referendum, recall and direct election of US Senators. A related effort sought nomination by primary elections.

The reform package achieved support in some areas of the country not usually thought of as especially progressive. Mississippi voters, for example, adopted a constitutional amendment for initiative, recall and referendum in 1914. The state supreme court promptly declared the constitutional amendment unconstitutional.

Nearly three years ago a local resident inquired of the Pamlico County Board of Elections what the procedure was in North Carolina to remove me and other Oriental commissioners from office by recall. The answer was: there is no such procedure.

That's about to change. During the current session of the NC legislature, local bills have been ratified establishing recall procedures in Oak Island, Topsail Beach, Belhaven and Burke (school board). Who knows where that will lead?