The registered voters of the Town of Smithfield shall have power
to remove elected members of the Town Council and School Committee
and other elected officials from office by recall, provided that the
recall may not be initiated during the last six (6) months of an incumbent's
term.
Any five (5) qualified voters may commence recall proceedings
by filing with the Town Clerk an affidavit stating they will constitute
the petitioners' committee and be responsible for circulating
the petition and filing it in proper form, stating their names and
addresses and specifying the address to which all notices to the committee
are to be sent and setting out in full the proposed name and office
of the elected official to be recalled.
Promptly after the affidavit of the petitioners' committee
is filed, the clerk shall issue the appropriate blanks to the petitioners'
committee.
(a)
Number of Signatures. Recall petitions must be signed by qualified
Town voters equal in number to at least fifteen percent (15%) of the
total number of persons registered to vote at the last regular election.
(b)
Form and Content. All papers of a petition shall be uniform in size
and style and shall be assembled as one (1) instrument for filing.
Each signature shall be executed in ink or indelible pencil and shall
be followed by the address of the person signing. Petitions shall
contain or have attached thereto throughout their circulation the
name and office of the official for whom recall is sought.
(c)
Affidavit of Circulator. Each paper of a petition shall have attached
to it when filed an affidavit executed by the person circulating it
stating the number of signatures thereon and affirming that he/she
personally circulated the paper, that all the signatures were affixed
in the presence of the circulator, and that he/she believes them to
be the genuine signatures of the persons whose names they purport
to be.
(d)
Time for Filing Recall Petitions. Recall petitions must be filed
with the Town Clerk within 30 (thirty) days after the clerk's
issuance of the blank petition.
(a)
Certification of Petition. The Town Clerk shall forthwith refer the
filed recall petition to the Board of Canvassers which shall within
10 (ten) days prepare a certificate as to its sufficiency, specifying
if it is sufficient and specifying if it is insufficient, the particulars
wherein it is defective. The Board of Canvassers shall promptly send
a copy of the certificate to the petitioners' committee by return
mail. In reviewing the petition, the Board shall accept every signature
as valid if it can be reasonably identified to be the signature of
the voter it purports to be; and provided, further, that variation
of the voter's signature by the insertion or omission of identifying
titles or by the substitution of initials for the first or middle
names or both shall not in itself be grounds for invalidation of such
signature. Any voter who is unable to write may sign by making his
or her mark (X) on the petition in the presence of two (2) witnesses
who shall subscribe their names on the paper as witnesses to the signing.
(b)
Court Review, New Petition. A determination as to the sufficiency
of a petition shall be subject to court review. A final determination
of insufficiency, even if sustained upon court review, shall not prejudice
the filing of a new petition for the same purpose.
The vote of the Town on a recall petition shall be held not
less than 30 (thirty) days and not more than 60 (sixty) days from
the date that the Board of Canvassers certified the petition as sufficient.
If a majority of the votes cast on the question of removal is
affirmative, the person whose removal is sought shall thereupon be
deemed removed from office upon certification of the election results.
