Recall fails for Spirit Lake mayor

An effort led by Lynn Cole to recall Spirit Lake Mayor Jeremy Cowperthwaite has failed, according to Kootenai County Elections Office officials.

“The petition did fall short of the required signatures,” Elections Manager Asa Gray said. 

Cole needed 291 valid signatures turned in by Oct. 21 to recall the mayor. She turned in 327 signatures, but 91 were invalid, for a total of 236 gathered that were valid. 

“The vast majority of signatures were rejected because the addresses listed didn’t match the registered address of the voter,” Gray said. “I will point out that the term ‘valid signatures’ is really important.”

Now that the recall effort has failed, no new recall effort for Cowperthwaite can be initiated within 90 days, Gray said. After the 90 days, any new recall effort would start the process from scratch, with new timelines, deadlines and requirements. 

Gray provided reasons for the rejection of signatures:

• 43 voters not registered

• 14 addresses were mismatched (registered at a different address)

• 12 signatures were not valid (did not match voter registration)

• 9 were duplicates

• 7 were signed with an invalid date (signed before Aug. 7)

• 2 had crossed out signatures

• 2 were not legible 

• 2 were out of the county (not in city limits; in Bonner County)

• 1 was in an invalid district (not in city limits)

• 1 voter was not fully registered