Recall elections upcoming

Tucumcari City Clerk Angelica Gray notified city commissioners on March 23 that enough signatures had been collected and certified to warrant a recall election for three out of four city commissioners.

Tucumcari resident Keith Hayes began petitions for the recall last month, citing his reasons as commissioners not putting the needs of residents first. Hayes has battled commissioners regarding his business property, which the city has fined him for it being unkempt with heavy, rusting equipment and other unsightly items on it.

Gray said she verified the signatures with the voter registration log at the Quay County Clerk’s Office.

The following were the amount of signatures collected for each commissioner:

• District 1, Ralph Moya: 29 qualified signatures (26 were required).

• District 2, Amy J. Gutierrez: 25 qualified signatures (22 were required).

• District 3, mayor, Ruth Ann Litchfield: 27 qualified signatures (17 required).

Gray said each petition had signatures that had been purged from the voter log for various reasons.

The 11 voters have 10 days since the certification on March 19 to dispute their signatures disqualification.

She said the petition for Robert Lumpkin, District 4 commissioner, did not gather the necessary signatures. She said 11 of the 30 signatures were purged from the voter log for District 4, leaving only 19 qualified signatures with 23 were required for recall.

Gray said the next step will be to set a special election date for the recall of Districts 1-3. She said the date for the election will be set during a special commission meeting or during the April 13 regular meeting.