Recall: Who Can Be Recalled, When and Why

A recall is a political tool, not a legal proceeding. Nobody has to prove anything to a judge. A set number of voters signs a petition within a set time, and then all the voters decide. That makes it easy to start and, in Idaho, hard to finish, because of the timing limits in this lesson and the vote test in lesson 3. The constitutional background is in lesson 1.

Who can be recalled

Article VI, Section 6 makes "every public officer" subject to recall except judicial officers, and tells the Legislature to pass the laws to carry it out. The Legislature did that in Idaho Code 34-1701, which names the offices "and none other." The list covers the officer whether elected or appointed to the elective office, so a legislator appointed to fill a vacancy can be recalled like one who won the seat.

Level	Offices subject to recall (34-1701)	Petition filed with (34-1702)
State executive	Governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state controller, state treasurer, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction	Secretary of State
Legislature	State senators and state representatives	Secretary of State
County	County commissioners, sheriff, treasurer, assessor, prosecuting attorney, clerk of the district court, coroner	County clerk
City	Mayor and city council members	County clerk
Special districts	Elected officers "for whom recall procedure is not otherwise provided by law"	Clerk of the county where the district lies (each county clerk if it crosses lines)

What is not on the list:

• Judges and magistrates. Excluded by the constitution's words "excepting the judicial officers."
• Members of Congress. The state list does not include them, and Idaho law provides no procedure for recalling them.
• Appointed officials who do not hold an elective office. A city administrator, a county planning director or a state agency head is accountable to whoever appointed them. A recall reaches the elected people who did the appointing.
• Officers of districts with their own recall law. The words "not otherwise provided by law" in 34-1701(4) mean a district statute with its own recall procedure controls. Ask the county clerk which rule applies to a given district before printing anything.

The county officer list in 34-1701(2)(a) names the "clerk of the district court." When the officer being recalled is the county clerk, 34-1707(2) has the Secretary of State notified and has the Secretary of State, not the clerk, order the election. The same section has the governor order a recall election of the Secretary of State.

School trustees and other district officers

School districts are not named in 34-1701, but trustees are elected officers of a district, and Title 33 treats them as recallable under Chapter 17. Idaho Code 33-504(1)(b), as amended in 2024, says a vacancy exists when a trustee is recalled "in accordance with section 34-1712," and that the vacancy occurs when the recall election is certified, with no board declaration needed. It adds a rule unique to trustees: between the recall election and the proclamation of results, the trustee may not take part in any action that would change the board's structure or create new contracts or financial obligations for the district. The same is true of highway, fire, cemetery, library, hospital and other district boards whose members are elected: they fall under 34-1701(4) unless their own statute says otherwise.

District recalls use a different signature base from every other office, set by 34-1702(5): half the number of electors who voted in the last election in the district, subdistrict or zone. Because district elections often draw very few voters, that can be a small number. Lesson 3 works the math.

When a recall may start

Three timing rules in 34-1713 and 34-1707 shape every recall:

Rule	Statute	What it means in practice
90 days into the term	34-1713(1)	No petition may circulate until the officer "has actually held office under the current term" for at least 90 days. A reelected officer starts a new 90 days with each new term.
90-day bar after a failed petition	34-1707(4)	If a petition comes up short, the officer stays in office and no new recall petition may circulate against the same officer for 90 days.
One recall election per term, unless repaid	34-1713(2)	After one special recall election, no new petition may be filed during that term unless petitioners first pay the public treasury the whole cost of the earlier election.
No reused reasons	34-1713(2)	The specific reason in a petition that went to election cannot be the basis of a second petition in the same term.
75 days to finish	34-1704(2)	Once the form is approved, the required signatures must be gathered within 75 days, or the petition is void "ab initio in its entirety."

The 90-day start rule gives a new officer a short grace period and stops a losing side from starting a recall the day after an election. The repeat rules stop the same group from forcing election after election. The 75-day window keeps old signatures from piling up; it is covered with the filing steps in lesson 3. Note that nothing in Chapter 17 bars a recall near the end of a term, though the election calendar in 34-106 often makes a late recall pointless.

Why Idaho requires no grounds

Some states allow recall only for listed grounds such as malfeasance, neglect of duty or conviction. Idaho is not one of them. Ballotpedia counts Idaho among the 27 states with local recall that require no specific grounds. The Idaho forms in 34-1703 ask only for "the reasons for recall in no more than 200 words." No official reviews the reasons for truth or legal sufficiency, and Chapter 17 has no procedure for challenging them.

The reasoning behind a no-grounds recall is that an elected office belongs to the voters, so the voters may decide they made a mistake for any reason, the same way they may vote someone out at the end of the term. The reasoning on the other side is that elections already exist, that a recall costs public money, and that officials need room to cast unpopular votes. Idaho's statute answers the second concern with procedure rather than grounds: the 90-day waiting period, the 20 percent signature threshold, the 75-day limit, the repeat-recall cost rule and, most of all, the vote test that requires yes votes equal to the officer's original vote total.

The statement of reasons

The reasons appear twice: at the top of every petition sheet and, under 34-1708, on the recall ballot itself, "in not more than two hundred (200) words." Because the same text goes on the ballot, it is worth writing for the voter who will read it in the booth, not for the petition table. Specific, checkable statements (votes taken, dates, dollar amounts) persuade better than adjectives, and they keep circulators clear of the felony in 34-1714(1)(d) for knowingly giving false statements about the "contents, purport or effect" of the petition to get signatures.

The officer's justification

34-1708 gives the officer equal space: "not more than two hundred (200) words" of "justification of his course in office," printed on the ballot after the reasons. Chapter 17 does not set a deadline for filing it. A 2022 bill, Senate Bill 1377, would have required the officer to file it on the fifth business day after notice that the petition was sufficient; the bill passed the Senate 35 to 0 and died in House State Affairs. In practice the clerk sets the date when building the ballot, so an officer facing a recall should ask the clerk in writing for the deadline as soon as the petition is certified.

The petition itself

The petition follows one of five forms in 34-1703: state officers, legislators, county officers, city officers and special district officers. Each form is addressed to the filing officer (the Secretary of State or the county clerk), names the officer and office, sets out the reasons, asks that a special election be called, and has each signer affirm being a registered elector of the jurisdiction with residence, address including county, and date correctly written. Each sheet has no more than 20 numbered lines with columns for signature, printed name, residence street and number, county and date.

The steps in 34-1704 run in this order:

1. Before or when circulation begins, the organizers deliver a prospective petition signed by at least 20 electors eligible to sign.
2. The Secretary of State or clerk examines it "immediately" and specifies the form, kind and size of paper.
3. The officer approves it as to form in writing, dates the approval, and tells the organizers in writing they have 75 days.
4. Every signature sheet is printed on good quality bond paper in standard size, with a full and correct copy of the petition attached.
5. The 20 signatures on the prospective petition do not count toward the total.

Every sheet also carries the circulator's sworn statement under 34-1705: that the circulator is an Idaho resident at least 18 years old, that each person signed in the circulator's presence, and that the circulator believes each signer gave correct information and was eligible. It is sworn under penalty of perjury before a notary. A signer may cross out his or her own signature any time before the petition is filed (34-1713(3)).

Crimes in recall petitioning

Act	34-1714 subsection	Level
Signing any name other than your own	(1)(a)	Felony
Knowingly signing more than once	(1)(b)	Felony
Knowingly signing when not a registered elector	(1)(c)	Felony
Knowingly giving false statements about the petition's contents or effect to get signatures	(1)(d)	Felony
Filing, or circulating, a petition known to contain false or forged names	(1)(e) and (f)	Felony
False circulator affidavit	(1)(g)	Felony
Offering or threatening, for money, to sell, delay or drop a petition, or using a petition for extortion or blackmail	(1)(h)	Felony
A public officer's knowingly false return or certification about a petition	(2)	Felony

The money clause in (1)(h) is worth reading twice. Offering to stop a recall drive in exchange for payment, or threatening a recall to extract a private favor from a person or business, is a felony. Trading a recall for a private payoff is the crime. Using one to change a public decision is ordinary politics.

Recall and the other ways out of office

Recall is not the only way an Idaho official leaves office early. It is the only one voters control directly.

Path	Who starts it	Needs cause?	Source
Recall election	Voters by petition	No	Art. VI, Sec. 6; 34-1701 to 34-1715
Resignation	The officer, in writing, to the body named in law	No	59-902; during a recall, 34-1707 allows 5 business days after notice
Impeachment	The House; tried by the Senate	Yes	Art. V, Sec. 3; judgment limited to removal and disqualification
Accusation for misconduct	A county grand jury	Yes: willful or corrupt misconduct in office	19-4101 and following, for district, county, precinct and city officers
Automatic vacancy	Happens by law	The listed event	59-901: death, resignation, felony conviction, moving out of the jurisdiction, forfeiture, abandonment declared by a tribunal
Missed meetings (school trustees)	The board	Four consecutive regular meetings without an excuse the board accepts	33-504(1)(a)(vi)

Two practical points. First, a recall drive and a removal process can run at the same time, and sometimes the second makes the first moot: Ballotpedia's 2023 report on West Bonner noted a Horseshoe Bend council member who faced a recall effort that never reached a vote because he left office after a felony plea, which creates a vacancy under 59-901(1)(h). Second, an officer who resigns within 5 business days after a recall petition is found sufficient ends the recall; the resignation takes effect that day and the vacancy is filled the usual way (34-1707).

Real Idaho recall efforts

Three efforts from different levels of government show the range of outcomes. Each is described from news reports and official statements, without taking a side on the reasons.

Ballotpedia's same report counted the West Bonner trustees as the fifth and sixth school board members recalled nationwide in 2023, and said an average of 10 school board members a year were recalled nationwide from 2009 to 2022. In Idaho, as those numbers suggest nationally, local offices are where recalls most often reach the ballot.