PUEBLO – He’s held the state’s top office for a little more than two months, but concerned citizens across the state, including Pueblo County, want Gov. Jared Polis out.
The ‘Recall Polis – Pueblo County’ group held its first official meeting Monday night. Around 50 people showed up to decide their next moves. They’re one of dozens of groups, originating on Facebook, that want Polis removed from office.
Jerry Eller, a member of the group, said their concerns involve the legislation Polis has already endorsed in his time in office.
For starters, he said he feels his vote in the presidential election has been lost since Polis signed the National Popular Vote Act on Friday.
“It’s very important to us as individual voters that we have the right to elect our president, not California, not New York,” he said.
Additionally, Eller said bills looking to address the oil and gas industries, as well as so-called red flag gun legislation, are infringing upon American rights. He thinks this election may cause voters to think more critically before future elections.
“You really need to be on top of the ramifications and the issues of what’s going to happen if I elect this person, and it goes both ways,” Eller said.
Eller said this recall process is a way of flexing their American rights.
But a recall process isn’t something that would be finished anytime soon. Elected officials at the state and county levels cannot become the subject of a recall until they’ve been in office for six months.
Additionally, state law requires the petitioner to collect the signatures of 25 percent of all votes cast for that office in the election. The gubernatorial election had 2,525,062 votes, so the petitioners would need a little more than 631,000 valid signatures.
A separate statewide Facebook group committed to the cause now has more than 20,000 members. The group says its motivation lies in “Polis’ support unconstitutional legislation of Senate Bill 19-042 to end the electoral college voting system in Colorado to the popular vote initiative, and total disregard to whether or not the citizens of the state would approve…”
That group has already submitted its petition language, which is awaiting approval.
