Efforts have officially begun to recall Mayor Vincent Gray and City Council Chairman Kwame Brown.
A special meeting was held Feb. 13 by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE) to approve the two petitions to recall Gray and Brown. However, that doesn't mean such a vote will take place: In order to garner a recall, more than 45,000 signatures have to be obtained by 5 p.m., Aug. 13, and elections officials can only schedule a vote once the signatures become certified.
Petitioners such as Northwest D.C. resident Frederick Butler -- who is spearheading the recall efforts -- have 180 days to gather signatures from 10 percent of registered voters from across the city, according to BOEE spokeswoman Alysoun McLaughlin.
"But no one has successfully gathered enough signatures before," said McLaughlin, who alluded to similar bid that was aimed at former Mayor Adrian Fenty. "A recall was done on Fenty but it didn't go through," she said.
Butler, 28, -- who reportedly needs some $170,000 to effectively launch a recall -- has cited a scandal-plagued year at Wilson Building in downtown D.C. that include federal investigations surrounding the 2008 and 2010 campaigns of Brown and Gray, respectively.
Meanwhile, both Gray and Brown have dismissed Butler's efforts as baseless, with Gray stating that most of his detractors were Fenty supporters.
