By Maria Hickey, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – An effort to recall St. Louis Alderman Freeman Bosley Senior is still up in the air.
Debra Gordon, president of the Third Ward Democrats for the People, has sued the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners. Her group has spearheaded an effort to recall Bosley.
The suit claims there is no state or city law allowing people to remove their names from recall petitions. Bosley submitted affidavits last month which removed some names from the original batch of submitted signatures.
But Gordon also says many of the more than 300 people who removed their names were pressured to do so. "We live in the United States. Each person has rights and we're feeling in the Third Ward that our rights are being violated," Gordon said Tuesday, in an interview.
Bosley, though, says preventing people from changing their minds is undemocratic: "Not to give people that option most certainly moves us something like to a communist state, where people are locked in."
Bosley's attorney has filed a motion to intervene in the suit. A court hearing will be held August 21st.
In the meantime, the Board of Elections will not be able to certify the petition signatures. The group's original batch of names came up short of forcing a recall vote, but it was allowed to submit more names to try to reach the threshold.
If, after the case is settled, there are still not enough names ruled valid, the recall effort will have failed.