While a proposal to create a citizen’s recall process for elected officers was tabled by members of the Maine House Thursday, the issue has been gaining support through an online petition.

On Wednesday, the representative who introduced the order also started a petition through SignOn.org. Rep. Cynthia Dill, D-Cape Elizabeth, said creating the petition was an outlet for people to express support of a citizen recall process in Maine. While she said she has no interest in starting an initiative to recall Gov. Paul LePage, many of her constituents have expressed their frustration over his actions.

After creating the petition, she posted it to her Twitter and Facebook pages and said, “then it just went viral.” As of 3 p.m. today, over 7,660 people had signed it electronically.

The online petition cites that 18 other states have a recall process and says, “If elected officials are not doing the job they were elected to do, why should they stay in office?”

Even though the order was not discussed among legislators, Dill said she hopes enough people signing the petition will contact their respective representatives and the issue will be taken off the table.

“I fully can accept this issue might not win, but I think we at least owe it to the people of Maine to at least have a debate on whether or not there should be a recall process,” Dill said.

Bruce Soule of Yarmouth signed the petition after receiving an email about it from his son. When he signed it Friday night, there were just over 6,000 signatures and shared the information as well.

“It’s an important opportunity for people to have their say,” he said.

Dill said people she has heard from since the issue was tabled without discussion are upset. The petition was a way for her to engage people in the process, she said.

“My hope is that enough people will, enough members in the house will hear from their constituents and agree this is a matter that at least deserves a vote,” Dill said. “Tabling is used to avoid having to vote, so we’ll see.”

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