Columbia County Councilman Charles Allen Won’t Face November Recall

The effort to recall District 6 Councilmember Charles Allen has failed to generate enough signatures to place his candidacy on the ballot.

Pessimism about Allen has grown since the winter, as homicides and carjackings have spiked in his district. The initiative fell about 700 signatures short of its goal of 6,225, with organizers blaming the lack of a mobile app to collect names, which was supposedly required.

“With a required mobile petition app — a much easier process than the cumbersome task of collecting signatures on paper — the committee would have certainly collected far more than the required number of signatures and would have been successful in placing the recall petition on the ballot,” Jennifer Squires, chairwoman of the Committee to Recall Charles Allen, argued in a letter to the District of Columbia Office of Campaign Finance, also requesting an investigation into why the app was not made available.

The top official at the D.C. Board of Elections, Monica Holman Evans, denied there’s anything in the law that would accomplish what the recall campaign is asking for. The board offered a mobile petition tool in 2022 but withdrew it and plans to create another app. Still, she doubted it would make a difference.

“So you’re still going through the exact same process on the streets, door-to-door with people, collecting signatures,” Evans said. “It’s not like you can send out a mass (electronic) message to collect signatures.”

The voting initiative using the classification method was included in the vote without using the mobile application.

Allen said Washington Post “bad faith attempts to recall the product have failed in every respect.”

“Ultimately, the recall organizers failed to appreciate that the residents of Ward 6 are thoughtful people who are looking for real solutions to our most difficult problems and are not responding to the fear and division we see every day on the national stage,” Allen wrote. “My neighbors also know that real problem solvers roll up their sleeves, lead with courage and support, and strive to build community rather than divide it. This is the Ward 6 I am proud to call home and am honored to have represented for a decade.”

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Allen voted to cut the police budget by $15 million, supported an overhaul of the county’s penal code and supported legislation to allow people between the ages of 22 and 24 convicted of most crimes to receive lenient sentences. He served as chairman of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee until 2022.

The recall campaign raised $120,000 and had the support of D.C. Republicans but faced a strong pro-Allen countercampaign. Allen reiterated to his supporters that critics calling for his replacement were not proposing any solutions or alternative candidates.