Want to recall an elected official in Kansas?

It’s not as easy as it is in California, where Gov. Gray Davis will face a recall election next month. In fact, the bar for removing politicians midterm is set high in the Sunflower State.

“I suppose it was set up that way so it was something people didn’t take frivolously,” said Patty Jaimes, Douglas County clerk and the county’s election officer.

Kansas residents have to be determined to wade through their state’s recall election process. The standard is high enough that no attempt has ever been made to recall a statewide elected official, said Jesse Borjon, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office.

State law allows officials to be recalled for three broad reasons — misconduct in office, conviction of a felony or failure to perform the duties of the office. A fourth reason, “incompetence,” was removed by the Legislature last session.

To force a recall election, a petition with signatures from at least 40 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the previous election must be presented to the Secretary of State’s Office. In California, petitions must have 12 percent of the number of voters.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, most of the 18 states with recall provisions require signatures from 25 percent of voters who participated in the previous election. Kansas’ 40 percent is the highest among the 18 states except for Louisiana, which requires 40 percent in some cases.

“In California, they really don’t have to have a reason at all” to recall an official, said Don Haider-Markel, associate professor of political science at Kansas University. “Plus, the number of signatures is lower. In Kansas, that 40 percent — I can’t imagine anyone even coming close to that number.”

Haider-Markel said it’s more likely that local officials — such as city council members, county commissioners or school board members — would be recalled, because it’s easier to garner a smaller number of signatures.

Unlike in California, where a recall effort against Gov. Gray Davis has reached fever pitch, Kansas has much stiffer requirements for a recall, and that's fine with Kansas University political scientist Don Haider-Markel. The

At least two local recall efforts currently are under way in Kansas. In Harper County in south-central Kansas, County Commissioner Robert Sharp faces a Nov. 4 recall election. Petition organizers allege he and other commissioners talked over the phone about hiring a county employee, a violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act.

In the southeast Kansas town of Galena, a police dispatcher also has started a recall effort against two city commissioners — Marion Davies and Darrell Shoemaker — based on open meetings violations.

Haider-Markel said it was fine with him if recall elections weren’t used more often.

“The thing I’ve been stressing to my students is the anti-democratic aspects of the recall,” he said. “It’s partly a notion of mob rule. The longest term of office for any office in the United States is six years. Even if somebody’s doing a bad job, you’ve got your chance to vote them out the next time around and it’s not that far away.”

Borjon, in the Secretary of State’s Office, said he’d also prefer not to deal with a statewide recall election, but for a different reason — cost. The California Secretary of State’s Office estimates the Oct. 7 recall will cost $53 million to $66 million.

“We are grateful that that’s not happening here in Kansas,” Borjon said. “But we’d be prepared if it was.”