This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
Lincoln County Commissioner Claire Hall announced Thursday she intends to fight her removal from office, two days after opponents were told they had collected enough signatures to force a recall election in January.
County clerk Amy Southwell on Tuesday said backers of the effort to recall the six-term commissioner had collected enough valid signatures to hold an election.
Hall has until Monday to issue a formal response – either to resign or submit a statement of justification of why she should stay in her position. If Hall stays, Southwell said, then ballots will likely go out by the end of December and the election will take place in mid-January.
While Hall told the Lincoln Chronicle she would announce her decision on Monday, she took to Facebook on Thursday to tell the Lincoln County Democrats organization she would fight her recall.
“I’m going to fight it and going to fight it with everything I’ve got,” she said.
The recall election would be the first in the county’s 132-year history that a commissioner faced such a recall, according to Southwell and former longtime clerk Dana Jenkins.
Lincoln County Citizens to Recall Claire Hall turned in 4,882 petition signatures to the county clerk for verification on Nov. 3 – three months after it received the go ahead to begin collecting them. Southwell’s office Tuesday finished verifying 3,945 of those signatures triggering a process that likely ends with a special countywide recall election in January.
Over the summer, volunteers set up beside grocery stores, near post offices and even knocked on doors throughout the county to collect signatures from the county’s 40,000 registered voters. Petitioners needed to collect 15 percent of the 26,270 Lincoln County voters in the 2022 gubernatorial election, which translated to 3,945 verified signatures.
Recall proponents gathered more than 1,000 signatures than what was needed but once the clerk’s office reached 3,945 they verified the petition, Southwell said.
“I am very thankful to all the signatures gatherers and anyone who signed the petition,” said Christine Jamison of Otter Rock, who filed the petition and led the signature-gathering campaign. She said she felt that those in support of the recall wanted leadership that can work with all county departments and citizens of the county, she told the Lincoln Chronicle Tuesday.
Jamison, who also goes by the surname Hutchins, was temporarily banned from county commission meetings for breaking rules around slander after she attempted to relay information she was given by county counsel Kristin Yuille.
Hall signed the ruling on Jamison’s temporary ban and previously garnered criticism for suggesting changes to the public comment period to items only relevant to the agenda. Hall has defended her proposal, saying that the action was a response to District Attorney Jenna Wallace and other staff members using the public comment period to air their grievances. Although there was discussion, currently, there is no restraint on public comment at meetings.
The recall petition describes gripes with how Hall has handled public comment among other issues.
“Commissioner Hall has demonstrated retaliatory behavior towards constituents who voice dissent,including public attacks via social media, while also attempting to limit free speech during public meetings,” the petition read.
The recall comes on the heels of months of division between county commissioners, Wallace and Yuille. The recall has been seen as one made of political divisions as Hall drew support from Democrats and the recall effort was spearheaded by Republicans and conservatives. But Hutchins asserts that the recall attracted people of all political backgrounds.
In a previous interview, she told the Lincoln Chronicle that volunteers ran names through the county’s registration database and found out that less than half of the signatures were from Republicans, about one-fifth were nonaffiliated, 13 percent were Democrats, 5 percent were independent and 2.45 percent were not able to be categorized.
Hall has served as a commissioner since 2004 and is in her sixth term in office. When she ran for re-election in 2024 she faced four challengers in the May primary and defeated Rick Beasley of Depoe Bay in a November runoff by just 115 votes, the closest commissioner race in decades.
Hall has not attended meetings in person since suffering a fall in September that fractured her hip, shoulder and several ribs. Hall said Thursday while being treated for those injuries she suffered “severe bleeding” from an ulcer and underwent “touch and go” surgery in Corvallis.
Despite those health issues, Hall said Thursday that she has recently been able to handle the duties of her office via phone calls and online meetings despite being unable to come to the courthouse in person.
Hall said Tuesday she would be submitting the necessary documents as well as a public statement Monday on the required deadline. She wanted more time to reflect before issuing her public statement but referred to previous statements she had made. In an Aug. 5 written statement Hall said that if the petition generated enough valid signatures, she would not resign.
In that statement she said that the recall targets her efforts to maintain order during public meetings and that elected officials have weaponized the public comment period and were enabled by Commissioner Casey Miller’s support.
“We have serious challenges in Lincoln County right now, and your county government should be focused exclusively on meeting those challenges,” Hall said. “Instead, a small group has created chaos and confusion in an effort to push narrow personal agendas at the expense of the greater good.”
The recall election will likely take place mid-January and is estimated to cost $40,000 to $50,000.
