The Austin City Clerk’s office has confirmed they have received a petition to recall the election of Council member Ann Kitchen. The petition was submitted by a local political action committee calling itself Austin4All.
The City Clerk must now certify these signatures within 20 days. Once the signatures are certified, the Council member has five days to resign. If she does not, the recall will go to voters, most likely in November.
The PAC announced a couple weeks ago that it had collected more than enough signatures to file the petition, but did not end up doing so until Friday afternoon.
Kitchen chairs the City of Austin's Mobility Committee, and she's been advocating for tighter regulations — notably, fingerprint-based background checks — for ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft. Austin4All petitioners argued that the stricter requirements would keep Uber and Lyft from operating in Austin. The companies have said they'd pull out of the Austin market if their drivers are required to undergo fingerprint-based background checks.
In May, Austin voters will have the opportunity to vote on a set of proposed regulations, less strict than Kitchen's. Find out more about that here.
