Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Another vote on another proposed advisory referendum regarding whether county elected officials could be recalled is up for a vote at the Sangamon County Board Meeting Tuesday night. This referendum has failed two times. Is the third time a charm? Sangamon County Board member Sam Cahnman was a guest on the WTAX Morning Newswatch discussing the vote.

What started the decision on this referendum?

“It all stems from the tragic killing of Sonya Massey by a deputy sheriff, and we found out after that killing that the elected sheriff at the time was quite negligent in ignoring a bunch of red flags and still hiring Deputy Grayson. After that, people from the government were calling on the sheriff to resign. He wouldn’t resign, initially at least. that’s when we realized we didn’t have the right to recall local elected officials.” 

It didn’t work the last two times. What happened? 

“Initially we tried to get it on the ballot in the April 2025 election. We took a vote at our January County board meeting. The board voted no. The other way to get it on the ballot is by initiating a petition and getting 8% of the signatures of the last vote for governor, which is 6,359 (in Sangamon County).Although we had collected quite a large number of signatures, we didn’t have the 6,359. We were a little bit short.”