Things are really heated now that Pastor Tom Brown has turned in all three petitions in his effort to recall the mayor and two city representatives.
The movement started after Mayor John Cook and Representatives Steve Ortega and Susie Byrd voted to restore health benefits for gay and domestic partners of city employees after the public voted against it. More than 15,000 signatures have been collected by Pastor Tom Brown and his supporters to recall Mayor John Cook and Representatives Susie Byrd and Steve Ortega.
"They violated our constitutional right which is the right to vote and have our vote be respected."
Mayor Cook says the language on the ballot was confusing, and the issue could have been resolved long ago by making the message clearer.
"If that's what their goal was is that they wanted to make sure that fornicators and homosexuals did not get health care benefits then just say it that way and then see how the people of El Paso vote for it."
Representative Ortega says he respects the recall process and is confident in his decision.
"Well over 100 city affiliated employees or retirees were going to have their benefits lost based on the sloppy language that tom brown submitted I felt like that was an injustice on top of his stance on homosexuality so I don't regret my vote one bit."
The estimated cost for recall elections are $900,000 to $2,000,000.
The mayor doesn't want taxpayers to take the hit but pastor brown says it doesn't have to be so expensive.
"It doesn't have to cost the people anything, all the three people have to do is now resign and if they resign they leave with at least some dignity and show respect to the votes of el paso."
Because a recall election is a lengthy process, it may only take off 8 to 10 months of the city leader's time in office. But recall supporters say it's a matter of principle.
"We would be satisfied if we took back one day. The thing is not how many days we're taking the thing is learn a lesson you want to run for city council."
Having a new ballot would be a lot cheaper than a recall election, and I feel would result in a different vote. I think the wording being confusing was done on purpose to confuse people so they would vote wrong on purpose. I'm a college graduate and still could not understand all the ins/outs of what was said, and I'm not the only one,many, many people had that problem. All this other stuff was thrown in to further confuse the real issue. Mr. Brown is a bigot and hiding behind his church persona
My first problem with this recall election is that I don't think church and politics should mix. No matter what Pastor Brown says, this is all about gay couples being able to have health insurance and that he thinks gay couples are a sin. The wording on ballot was so confusing that even to this day I'm not sure that my vote went the way I wanted. Have another vote and write it in plain english so you can understand what is being asked,than I think the outcome would be totally different.
Washington does it all the time. How could he overturn the votes if it was not written into his position as a power to wield? At least this time, unlike the typical of Washington, someone actually cared enough about others with a right to insurance.
Hoorah for Pastor Brown! They did indeed violate our constitutional right to vote and to have our vote respected. What Mayor Cook and his crew did was "slap our hand" as if we were little children, and act as if they were "mom" correcting a child: "Shame, shame, Ronny, you should not vote like that." This is unconstitutional, a slap in the face (not on the hand), and unacceptable. El Paso voters are NOT children, NOT stupid, NOT chopped liver, and NOT someone's rug. Go away, Cook.