Citizens Committee to Recall Rizzo (Philadelphia, Pa.).

The Citizens Committee to Recall Rizzo formed in January 1976 to recall Frank L. Rizzo, then mayor of the City of Philadelphia, in a petition drive.

Beginning on April 17, former Mayor Joseph S. Clark became the recall petition's first signer. The coalition gathered 210,806 signatures within the required sixty day time limit. The Philadelphia Home Rule Charter required at least 25 percent of the registered voters, or 145,000 signatures, to force a yes or no referendum on the fall election ballot.

The Committee submitted the petitions to the politically partisan Board of Elections. The Board verified 88,894 signatures, rejecting the vast majority as irregular, lacking a full name, indicating the wrong ward, etc. The Board of Elections was able to do so since the City Solicitor adopted stringent guidelines requiring all signatures to the match voter registration cards in every detail.

The Committee challenged this action in the Common Pleas Court of the County of Philadelphia. The Court ruled that a sufficient number of valid signatures appeared on the petitions for a recall vote. The City Solicitor later filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania who decalred the recall process unconstitutional, removing the referendum from the ballot.

From the description of Records, 1976. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122491149