Official gets recall protest

Humiston-Scott wants petition thrown out

Mancos School Board member Beverly Humiston-Scott has filed a protest stating that the petition to recall her contains false statements, and in some cases was signed by people who don't live in school district boundaries.

She says the petition should be thrown out.

So now it is up to a judge to decide if the recall can move on.

The notice of protest filed by Humiston-Scott regarding her recall as a Mancos School Board member will be heard by an election official on Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. in the Mancos Town Hall Board room.

"C.R.S. 1-12-103 requires the grounds set forth in the petition to be a general statement that is not false. The words: 'Ms. Humiston has been rude and intimidating toward school employees' is false. Also false are the words: 'Ms. Humiston's behavior cannot be tolerated by the residents of the Mancos School District any longer.' I am an elected School Board member, and my behavior at School Board Meetings was appropriate under the actual circumstances of a School Board Public Meeting environment," the notice of protest reads.

The notice of protest also states that the address listed by recall petition proponent Timothy Hunter was incorrect, and all his signatures should not be counted.

Another recall election signature gatherer, Donna Reitz, "has moved to Arizona and was not a resident at the time the Montezuma Clerk and Recorder found the petition to recall sufficient. If this is a basis, then those signatures on her petition should be rejected," the notice of protest reads.

Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder Carol Tullis certified the recall election on Oct. 17 after verifying that the committee to recall Humiston-Scott had gathered enough signatures. Of the 267 signatures turned into the Montezuma Couny Elections Department, 220 were deemed acceptable, and the recall needed 212 to get the recall on the ballot.

The notice of protest also alleged that the petition circulated by Angela Guiles, wife of Mancos School Board President Monty Guiles, disseminated additional information when gathering signatures for the recall and that "her specific conduct substantially mislead the signors of her circulated petition. All signors of her petition so mislead should be rejected."

Tullis said that once the appointed election official hears the case, that official has up to 30 days to make a decision. It is then up to Humiston-Scott to appeal that decision to district court.