Roll call to recall

A statewide petition to recall Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has reached Lincoln Parish.

Amy Smith, the parish representative of an organized group seeking the governor’s removal, was at the Make It Mine art shop on Farmerville Highway in Ruston Wednesday collecting petition signatures from like-minded Lincoln Parish residents.

The petition was originally filed by two Eunice men last week and needs 20% of Louisiana’s electorate, or about 600,000 signatures, to force a recall election.

Smith said the effort is largely organized through Facebook, which is how she was recruited to lead the charge in Lincoln Parish. The official “Recall John Bel Edwards” Facebook group had more than 73,000 members on Thursday morning, and 60 of the state’s 64 parishes, including Lincoln, had offshoot Facebook groups to organize local signings.

Smith reported more than 50 signatures in her first day at Make it Mine and planned to collect more Thursday and Friday.

She and every signee willing to speak with the Leader Wednesday afternoon cited Edwards’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the emergency response to Hurricane Laura as the main reasons they want to see him removed from office.

“I’m highly dissatisfied with our governor and how he’s handling this stuff — COVID, the hurricane relief and everything else,” John Haughton, a Ruston resident, said. “He’s not being honest with the people … he’s keeping the state shut down for a political agenda.”

After signing the petition, Haughton said he hoped that even if Edwards is not actually removed from office, the amount of signatures will send a message.

“He needs to start listening to the people who put him in office and not ruling over them,” he said.

Edwards announced Thursday the state would be moving to Phase Three of coronavirus reopening guidelines, with a proclamation to come today. The state has been in Phase Two, which restricts businesses to 50% capacity, since June. Edwards said more details on the specifics of the new phase would be revealed today, but he said the mask mandate currently in effect would remain.

Multiple people at the signing referenced stories circulating on social media claiming that workers coming from out of state to provide relief to southwest Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Laura were either turned away or forced to leave early due to the state’s CO-VID-19 guidelines.

“I don’t feel like we got support for the hurricane,” Felicia Romero, another signee, said.

Smith said when she saw the petition group on Facebook, she joined and wanted to help out with the effort, primarily because of Edwards’ response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The death rate is not high enough to keep the state on lockdown,” she said. “I believe it’s a political ploy, and I don’t agree with the way he’s handled that.”

Signatures must come from active voters in the parish in which they sign, but they did not have to be active voters at the time of Edwards’ reelection.

Smith said she planned to collect signatures in Dubach today across from First Guaranty Bank from 3-5:30 p.m. for her third day.