Wildwood Recall Petition Deemed Void

WILDWOOD — City Clerk Chris Wood on Wednesday, June 3 declared as void the petition to recall Mayor Ernie Troiano and Commissioner William Davenport.
The Wildwood Recall Committee turned in petitions on Monday, May 19 to the city clerk. Since that time, the clerk’s office had to verify signatures.
As a result, Wood said the petitions, which contained 792 signatures to remove Troiano and 790 for Davenport were found void “for a number of reasons.” To be found sufficient, the petitions would have had to contain 615 signatures of registered voters.
“Through our research and looking at names on lists, we eliminated a lot of names,” said Wood.
“At least 50 multiple signatures were found,” he added.
In addition, “some important boxes were not checked,” he continued.
Over 100 signatures dod not match, and there was a question about a circulator of the petition “who may not have been a resident,” Wood said.
Some 30 to 40 people per petition “came out of the woodwork saying it was fraudulent, and they wanted to be taken off the list,” Wood said.
“Rock solid,” valid signatures were “way below” the 25 percent needed,” he said.
“Thus, both petitions were deemed invalid due to insufficient signatures,” Wood said.
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