The recall campaign against Josephine County Commissioners Chris Barnett and Andreas Blech cleared a major hurdle on Wednesday with the county clerk’s announcement that enough signatures were validated to force a special election..

Also on Wednesday, Barnett filed suit against chief petitioner Jim Goodwin as well as County Clerk Rhiannon Henkels in her capacity as county clerk, saying the petition was “legally insufficient” and asking the court to halt the recall process.

Notifications sent from the clerk’s office to the commissioners and Goodwin on Wednesday said that the petition for Blech contained 6,711 valid signatures and the petition for Barnett contained 6,728 valid signatures, both of which were more than the 6,445 signatures required under state law, which states petitioners must turn in a number of valid signatures equal to 15% of the votes cast for governor in the targeted official’s district in the most recent gubernatorial election.

Now that the signatures have been certified and notification sent to Barnett and Blech, the commissioners have five days — until Dec. 8 — to submit a written resignation or, if they want to keep their seats, submit a “statement of justification.” Amid indications that one or both of the commissioners might resign, Henkels scheduled a special election for Jan. 6, 2025.

Lawsuit notwithstanding, Henkels said on Wednesday that unless she is told otherwise by her legal counsel, she will proceed with the election as required.

In an email, Barnett did not directly address whether he would resign or fight recall, but he wrote that he maintains that the recall effort is “unfounded and politically motivated.”

For more coverage of this story, see Thursday's print edition and online edition of the Daily Courier