Organizers of the recall effort against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio needed to turn in more than 335,000 valid voter signatures by 5 p.m. Thursday to force a recall election.
“We have come short,” recall campaign manager Lilia Alvarez said.
Recall organizers won’t reveal the number of signatures they gathered. That said, the last update they gave on their numbers five weeks ago was that they gathered 200,000 signatures.
Arpaio supporters say the sheriff won re-election in November fair and square and recall organizers shouldn’t have been allowed to contest the election simply because they didn’t like the outcome.
The recall effort began just weeks after the 80-year-old Republican sheriff started his sixth term in January. His November re-election race marked the second closest contest in his 20-year political career. He beat the closest candidate by 6 percentage points.
Arpaio critics had argued that the sheriff should be booted because his office has failed to adequately investigate more than 400 sex-crimes cases, has cost the county $25 million in legal settlements over treatment in county jails and his office was found by a federal judge to have systematically racially profiled Latinos in his signature immigration patrols. Critics say the sheriff is more focused on getting publicity for himself than protecting the people.
Recall organizers had hoped that last week’s racial-profiling ruling would pump new life into their cause. Supporters were camped outside a county building for more than four days in their final push.
In the hours before the recall petitions were due, a trickle of people dropped by three tents set up by recall organizers outside the county building to sign petitions. Clipboard-wielding volunteers hit up people walking on the sidewalk for signatures and wore T-shirts that said, “Petition Posse,” a play on Arpaio’s posses whose volunteer members assist sheriff’s deputies in some of their duties.
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