GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX)—The woman leading the campaign to recall the District 51 Board President, Andrea Haitz, is still hard at work gathering signatures towards the goal of 15,000, and Rickie Howie says the recall is right on track.

Howie kickstarted the Haitz recall effort back in March 2023 by pulling the paperwork and writing out the justification for the recall. The recall may cost upwards of $200,000 if there’s a special election for it, but nowhere near that if it goes on the ballot during the regular election.

Due to elections rules Howie, a member of the group, “Coffee and Civic Action” was on the corner of Main St and Spruce near the Mesa County Elections Division Friday, June 2 gathering more signatures.

Howie said by 2pm she’d collected 40 signatures or two packets and petitioners are only asked to pick up 30 a week.

The retired teacher with three decades of experience says her grandchildren graduated from District 51 and she’s taking a stand because of the decision to close East Middle School after Haitz rallied the other two Republican board members. Howie says she hopes to break the GOP bloc. Rickie tells KREX, “At the present time, we are about half way there. June 10th is the halfway point time wise and we’ve got just under 7,500 votes. So, we are on target.”

The recall petition deadline to reach 15,000 valid signatures is July 7th.