Most elected officials are safe until the next election. But in many states, voters do not have to wait: they can gather signatures and force a sitting official out early. The idea is older than you think.
A recall is a procedure that lets voters remove an elected official from office before their term ends, usually by gathering enough petition signatures to trigger a special election. It is direct democracy in its most pointed form: the power to fire a leader mid-term.
The idea is ancient. Athenian democracy had mechanisms for ejecting officials, and the principle that the people who put someone in power can take it back has deep roots.
In America it was a signature reform of the Progressive Era, roughly 1896 to 1917. Reformers, furious at corrupt officials controlled by party bosses and corporate interests, pushed recall, along with the initiative and referendum, to give power back to ordinary voters.
It is mostly a state and local tool, written into many state constitutions, especially in the West. Dramatic examples include the recall of California's governor in 2003, but most recall attempts fail to gather enough signatures or votes to succeed.
