McKinney Recall Clears Key Hurdle – 6500 Signatures

McKinney, TX – McKinney’s recall campaign organizer says it has crossed a threshold that could force Mayor Bill Cox and three City Council members to face the voters, but the city has not yet verified the 6,500-signatures.

John Aselton, the petitioners’ committee notice designee, told The Dallas Express that organizers had internally verified 6,500 signatures from registered McKinney voters as of this week. That is 695 more than the 5,805 signatures the campaign says are required to move the recall process forward. Organizers say they crossed the threshold last week and intend to keep collecting signatures until the 5 p.m. Sept. 26 deadline.

The number is significant, but it is not yet an official count.

McKinney City Secretary, Empress Drane, must examine the petition after it is submitted and determine which signatures actually qualify under the city charter and applicable election rules. The campaign itself acknowledges that its 6,500 figure is an internal count, not a certification by City Hall.

How the campaign got to 5,805

McKinney’s charter requires recall petitions to contain signatures from qualified city voters equal to at least 30% of the votes cast in the last regular municipal election, subject to a minimum requirement. In the May 3, 2025 McKinney mayoral election, the official Collin County results show 19,350 contest votes. Thirty percent of that figure is exactly 5,805.

The campaign is targeting 7,500 signatures, giving organizers a larger cushion for signatures that ultimately fail city review.

Aselton told The Dallas Express that the campaign’s internal “verified” figure excludes duplicates, withdrawals and signatures rejected by organizers during their own review. He said the campaign is checking whether signers are McKinney residents, registered voters and have valid McKinney addresses.

But the final referee is still the City Secretary.

Four officials are in the crosshairs

The recall effort targets Mayor Bill Cox, At-Large Council Member Ernest Lynch, District 3 Council Member Geré Feltus, and District 1 Council Member Justin Beller.

The City of McKinney’s official council roster confirms those positions and names.

The recall affidavit contains one stated ground for removing all four:

“A loss of public confidence in the ability of the officers named herein to faithfully represent the citizens of the City of McKinney.”

The campaign has said its concerns extend beyond any single council vote, citing spending, transparency, growth, infrastructure and responsiveness.

That point is worth emphasizing because the recall effort emerged only about a week after the City Council’s Aug. 4 unanimous approval of a 32,573-square-foot mosque and Islamic center. The timing has naturally led to speculation that the two events are directly connected.

The filed recall affidavit, however, does not identify the mosque vote as the ground for removal.

And, yes, that leaves plenty of room for voters to draw their own conclusions about the political circumstances without journalists doing it for them.

The signature fight comes with controversy

The campaign’s progress follows weeks of fighting over the petition itself.

Former McKinney Mayor George Fuller publicly warned that petition signatures and addresses could become available through public-records procedures. Recall organizers accused him of political intimidation, while Fuller has maintained that his comments were about political accountability rather than directing harassment against petition signers.

Separately, The Dallas Express reported on a TikTok video in which an apparent recall opponent encouraged tactics intended to interfere with signature gathering, including fake volunteer sign-ups and efforts to consume petition circulators’ time. The reporting did not establish how many people followed those suggestions or any connection between the TikTok user and Fuller.

The city gets the final say

The completed petition must be returned to the City Secretary by 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. After that, city officials will examine the signatures. A recall election does not automatically result from the campaign’s claim of 6,500 signatures. It must first qualify under the charter.

So for now, the appropriate description is simple: McKinney recall organizers say they have collected enough signatures. The City of McKinney has not yet said they have.

With 695 signatures of claimed breathing room, the campaign has some cushion. Whether it has enough valid signatures to survive official scrutiny is another question entirely.