Leader of petition drive to oust MW councilman says city confirmed drive's success, city mum

Credit: Jordan McCullough

Weatherford Democrat
By Glenn Evans gevans@weatherforddemocrat.com
October 12, 2023

MINERAL WELLS -- The leader of a petition drive to oust a Mineral Wells councilman says the city has reversed course and verified her list of signatures.

The city is mum on the topic, with City Manager Dean Sullivan deferring any comment to Tuesday's council meeting.

But Terri Glidewell, founder of the Facebook group, We the People of Mineral Wells, said Wednesday the city had informed her the petition is sufficient to force a recall election.

That's after City Clerk Sharon McFadden on Tuesday said the drive for signatures in Ward 1 came up short. 

The group is targeting Ward 1 Councilman Jerrel Tomlin and was tasked with gathering one quarter of the registered voters in that south-central part of the city.

"The city secretary just phoned me and let me know that she is re-certifying our petition as sufficient," Glidewell told the Weatherford Democrat Wednesday afternoon. "That was really great news. We knew we had our facts straight."

Attempts to confirm Glidewell's report that evening led to a statement the next morning from Sullivan.

"Information related to this topic is scheduled to be presented by the city clerk to the city council, per the city charter, at its next meeting, which is Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m.," Sullivan wrote.

Messages left with McFadden and Tomlin Thursday morning were not returned.

Glidewell said a discrepancy had arisen over the base number from which the 25 percent of voters had to come. When the petition initially was deemed insufficient, the group was told it needed one quarter of 2,067 registered voters.

"That was the first I'd heard of that number," she said. "The number we used, it was much less than that."

Glidewell said the group's base number had been 1,642, of which 25 percent is 411. The group had turned in 572 signatures.

They derived the lower baseline by eliminating ineligible names, she said.

Those were 243 listed as 'cancelled,' 179 suspended and three potentially listed as rejected with the notation, A-Rej, next to the names.

She said the group had verified its course of action with Pinto County Elections Administrator Laura Watkins. 

Glidewell said Watkins instructed the group to take so-called suspended voters off the top of the list of eligible signers, which she said she did.

She said they also visited Watkins Tuesday morning before turning in the petitions.

"Each one of us asked her individually about the suspense voters," Glidewell said. "Yes, she said, take suspense voters off the top on the way to the 25 percent."

Watkins did not immediately reply to an email asking the number of eligible Ward 1 voters who comprise the baseline on which the 25 percent target is based.

Suspense, or suspended voters, are people who cast provisional ballots because they lacked proper photo ID to vote but then failed to return before votes are canvassed to verify their registration.

There still were seven suspended voters among the 569 signatures turned in, according to city records. In all, though, 118 names were tossed off the petition for other reasons including not being a registered voter or not being registered in Ward 1.

"There's a theater, there's a drama, being played out here to the public that has failed," Glidewell said. "We're very excited. Of course, this is only the first step. We've got to get everybody out to vote on it."

Glidewell and other group members have said Tomlin, whose term expires in May, is just the first council member they plan to target.