A petition to recall all five Nevada County supervisors will not move forward, as supporters failed to submit the signatures required in order to trigger a recall.

The supporters’ campaign began in December, when proponents objected to measures being taken countywide in an effort to comply with and regulate COVID-19 precautionary measures, which included mask mandates and lockdown periods. The group was given until 5 p.m. Tuesday to submit the petition.

Calvin Clark, who is also a candidate for District 4 supervisor in next week’s election, has served as a main organizer of the recall. On Tuesday afternoon, when asked if his group would meet the 5 p.m. deadline, he said, “We’ll see.”

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Clark is running against incumbent Supervisor Sue Hoek.

A statement from recall supporters was emailed after the deadline.

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“In light of the fact that the election is coming up in a few days, and the fact that everywhere in America is so divided, it was decided to hold off on filing the recall signatures in order to create unity now,” it reads. “It was also agreed to postpone the filing of the recall in order to focus on electing two new supervisors.

“We consider the recall effort a success because it woke up our community to valid concerns and instilled civic responsibility,” it states.

Upon the group’s failure to file its petition, Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters Gregory Diaz said the next steps are listed in state code.

“I will have to go to code. I don’t think I need to do anything,” said Diaz. “If I do, I would just send a notice to the proponents saying that no petition was filed.”

In order for the petition to have proven successful, organizers would have needed to acquire the signatures of 20% of registered voters within each district.

Proponents of the measure claim that supervisors “failed to reopen Nevada County by promoting lawless lockdowns directly violating religious freedoms and individual liberty.”

Supervisors have said they believe the recall effort to be unwarranted, and a “waste of…taxpayer dollars.”

In January, an effort by supporters resulted in an incident which involved pushing open a door in the elections office. In turn, the county sought restraining orders against three people. A judge issued an order against one of them.

Diaz said that recall supporters are not precluded from filing another petition.

“They can try again, and the caveat is that they can try again now for three of the supervisors,” he said. “You can’t have a recall from six months toward the end of a term. So after June 1, those two seats whose terms end in January, you can’t have a recall during that time period. The law says you can’t recall an official who only has six months left in their term.”

Jennifer Nobles is a staff writer for The Union, a sister publication of the Sierra Sun. She can be reached at jnobles@theunion.com