D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) on Friday challenged an attempt to recall him from office, alleging activists submitted invalid signatures on petitions to force an election.
Recall supporters need the backing of a minimum of 10 percent of registered voters in Ward 2, or about 5,000 residents, to trigger an election.
Elections officials have 20 days to decide whether to block the recall effort or to validate the signatures.
Some constituents are trying to throw out Evans, first elected in 1991, because of allegations that he used his public office to benefit companies that were secretly paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars for consulting services.
Adam Eidinger, who spearheaded a successful 2014 ballot measure to decriminalize marijuana, is leading the recall effort. Eidinger first had to overcome questions about his residency.
Evans’s lawyers contend that the recall petitions are rife with forgeries.
They allege that hundreds of signatures are written in similar handwriting and appear to be forged. Their challenge includes declarations from two people whose names appear on petitions but who say they did not sign them.
“We did find specific instances of fraud and forgery, and just numerous pages where it looked like the address was all written by the same person and just a squiggly line for the signatures,” said Don Dinan, an attorney representing Evans.
The entire recall effort is “inherently and irretrievably corrupted,” the lawyers wrote in their filing.
In a text message, Eidinger said recall backers “will review his challenge and continue to fight for the recall which is needed to restore trust in the D.C. Council.”
The elections board has previously taken action in response to forged signatures, forcing former mayor Anthony Williams to run for reelection as a write-in candidate in 2002 and preventing a business-backed candidate from appearing on the ballot in last year’s at-large council race.
Evans is up for reelection in 2020 and has not yet filed paperwork to seek another term.
If successful, the recall election probably would take place several months before the June 2020 Democratic primary. Six candidates are running for the party’s nomination to be the Ward 2 candidate. In a city that is overwhelmingly Democratic, the primary generally serves as the de facto election.
Evans has been the target of a federal probe but has not been charged with a crime. Law firms retained by the D.C. Council and Metro, where Evans spent several years as board chairman, concluded that he violated ethics codes by using his positions to help his private clients.
The D.C. Council on Tuesday will meet to discuss whether to investigate Evans further and potential disciplinary measures, including expelling him from office. Nine of 13 members have already called on him to resign.
Evans says he will not appear at the meeting to answer questions while under oath from his colleagues. But his lawyers sent another letter to the council this week arguing that most of his ethics violations were inadvertent and that expulsion would be overly punitive.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said then-mayor Anthony Williams ran for reelection as a write-in candidate in 2006. It happened in 2002. The story has been updated.