July 11, 2009
By CHRISTINA TATU
FRANKFORD -- Mayor Paul Sutphen is challenging the validity of more than 500 signatures on a recall petition while recall organizers are challenging the township clerk's decision to invalidate 164 of the petition's signatures.
Both groups filed their challenges with township clerk Louanne Cular last week.
On June 25, Cular declared the petition was valid. Although she dismissed 164 signatures, the petition's 1,066 signatures still surpassed the required number of 1,030, or 25 percent of Frankford's registered voters in the last general election.
Cular said she will review the petition again Monday with township attorney Kevin Benbrook.
Cular said she rejected the 164 signatures because some of them belo-nged to voters who had been deleted from the township's system because they had died. Others had illegible signatures or did not check boxes next to their names stating they read and understood what they were signing.
George Lista, a spokesman for the recall group, said along with their objection to Cular's decision to eliminate the signatures, they also sent valid voter registration cards for about 122 of the signatures and requested that those 122 signatures be considered valid.
The recall committee's attorney, Ed Buzak of Montville, also will review the petition with Cular and Benbrook, Lista said.
Cular said Sutphen questioned more than 500 signatures on the petition. Sutphen declined to comment on why he objected to the signatures, but Cular said he questioned whether some of them had been forged and whether they belonged to voters registered in the township.
"I did challenge the recall," Sutphen said. "I should not be recalled from office because I have not done anything wrong and I want to maintain doing my job for the township," he said. "I swore I'd finish my term."
Sutphen is up for re-election in 2010.
State law does not set a deadline for how long the clerk has to re-verify the signatures, but it does say the review should be carried out in an "expedited manner."
Recall petitioners have requested a special election to recall Sutphen, which according to county election officials could cost Frankford taxpayers about $15,500. Petitioners hope the special election is as early as September.
