Joshua Spivak: “While the multi-billion dollar presidential campaign sucked up most of the nation’s attention this year, in scores of smaller elections across the country, voters took unprecedented action to force political changes of their own. In 2012, at least 168 elected officials faced recall votes. That appears to be an all-time record.”
“Of course, more recalls were attempted than actually made the ballot. On
at least 508 occasions, citizens took out recall petitions in 2012.
Most of them failed. Recalls against the governors of Michigan, Arizona,
and Louisiana went nowhere, and the attempts to recall the mayors of
Washington, D.C., Denver, Oakland, and Nashville all failed to get on
the ballot. What’s the difference between success and failure? Often,
money.”