Recall School Board petitions reach the 70,000 signatures goal

(SAN FRANCISCO) One week prior to the recall school board petition deadline, the recall campaign headquarter announced numbers of signatures gathered have reached the goal of 70,000 for two of the three school board members.

The new numbers have surprised supporters for both sides, including the "super" parent volunteer Man Kit Man who has gathered exceeding 4000 signatures. "This is a tremendous effort by the organizers and volunteers. By hitting our 70K signatures target, we have proven a lot of people wrong," said Lam in a surprise to hear the new numbers.

Three School Board Members on the recall list are President Gabriela Lopez, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Member Alison Collins. 51,325 valid signatures for each School Board Member are required by September 7 to be put on the ballot of a special recall election.

The latest numbers released by the campaign headquarter on the weekend indicate that Lopez received most recall signatures at 70,400, Collins at 70,200, Moliga at 66,900.

Members of the Chinese community, including Lam, Chinese American Democratic Club members, and community activist Ann Yuey, have spent time walking around streets and corners in the last few weeks to gather signatures.

"We were all duly elected by the voters of San Francisco, including immigrant voters who are parents of SFUSD students and had the ability to vote for the first time through Prop N. I worry this will strip immigrant communities of their voice and their choice." Lopez responded to Wind Newspaper.

Lopez said the recall elections would hurt the school district by over 7 million dollars to run an additional election. “I don't believe it is helpful for our school district to have to focus on this recall, especially during a time when many people are still hurting and suffering."

Moliga responded that he would be waiting for the signature gathering process to be completed before commenting on the recall.

Collins, who posted a series of controversial tweets in 2016 against Asian Americans, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.