Recall Election Would Be A First For San Angelo

Last week a new community organization called the San Angelo Data Center Citizens Coalition announced a campaign to recall Mayor Tom Thompson.

Although the dispute driving the recall is the proposed development of a hyperscaler data center northeast of San Angelo, the Coalition did not mention that fact in their press release. The reasons listed for the recall effort were:

• Concerns regarding incomplete or delayed disclosure of information related to major development activity
• Limitations on meaningful and timely public engagement
• Use of communication practices that may restrict or control the flow of information
• Public statements that may not fully reflect underlying circumstances or access to information
• Broader questions regarding adherence to established standards of transparency, fairness, and open governance.

If history is any indication, the recall effort’s odds of success are a long shot.

So far as can be determined, no recall election has ever made it on the ballot in the history of San Angelo, so if the Coalition is successful, it will be a first.

So far, the only recall attempt on record took place in 2024, when a citizens’ group started a petition effort to recall the entire city council.

According to news reports, the effort failed because the petition with signatures was never submitted to the city.

Recall elections are provided for under the city charter, which is the equivalent of the city’s constitution. The charter sets a high threshold to trigger a recall election of the mayor.

Section 48 of the Charter states:

Any elective officer of the City shall be subject to recall and removal from office by the voters of the City and the procedure to effect such removal shall be as follows:

The section goes on to say:

A petition, demanding that the question of removing such officer be submitted to the voters, shall be filed with the City Clerk. 

But it is not just any petition submitted by any person that will trigger the obligation of the city council to set a recall election.

Only petition forms obtained from the San Angelo City Clerk may be used.

Before the clerk can issue those petition forms, they must receive an affidavit from a registered voter, and resident of the city, stating the name of the elected official they are seeking to recall, and then the clerk must certify and issue the petition forms given to the person who signed the affidavit.

When returned, all of the signatures to be considered must be on one of the issued forms. If they are not, they will not be counted.

The charter requires that to be accepted and force an election, the petition must be “signed by at least thirty (30) percent of the number voting to fill the office of the incumbent sought to be recalled, in the last regular municipal election to fill that office.”

Since 9,902 people voted in the last mayoral election of 2025, 30 percent would be 2,728 signatures.

Each signer must include their place of residence within the city limits and their voter registration number for verification.

According to the city charter, all signatures must be returned within 60 days, and the circulator of the petition must certify, by affidavit, that the signatures are all genuine, and that they watched each person sign the petition.

In other words, online petitions, faxed copies and electronic signatures are not acceptable.

The deadline to return signatures by the Coalition is June 20, 2026.

The clerk will then have 30 days to verify the validity and sufficiency of the signatures.

If the petition and signatures are sufficient, the clerk is required to inform the elected official and the city council.

The named official would then have 15 days to resign, after which time the council would be required to call for an election which cannot take place in less than 30 days, or more than 90 days.

However, the date on which the election should be held according to the charter would conflict with state law.

Under Texas Election Code § 41.001, a general or special election must be held on one of the uniform election days.

Recall elections are considered special elections and are required to be held on the next available uniform election date. The next uniform date is November 3, 2026.

Therefore, if the petition drive is successful, the recall election cannot be held until the general mid-term election this November.

Considering all of these hurdles, it is not hard to understand why petitions for recall elections have not seen much use in San Angelo politics.