A second petition to remove Elton Mayor Keisa Skinner Lemoine from office has been launched after an initial attempt was rejected after recall organizers failed to submit enough valid signatures to place the issue on the ballot.

Lemoine, who is in her first term as mayor, was targeted earlier this year with a recall drive. That effort ended after organizers failed to collect enough valid signatures to trigger a recall election.

Of the more than 300 signatures submitted, only one signature was deemed valid, according to the Jeff Davis Parish Registrar of Voters Office.

Now there is a new effort initiated to oust Lemoine by a different group lead by chairman Jared “Firecracker” Trahan, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor against Lemoine last November. Marilynn Granger is vice-chairman of the group.

The group filed its intent with the Secretary of State on Aug. 22. Because the town electorate is under 1,000, the group has 90 days to submit the completed petition to the Registrar of Voters Office for certification.

Trahan said the group is working to get enough valid signatures to get a recall election on the ballot. The group lists election irregularities and voter fraud in the last mayoral race as the reasons for the recall.

“This is nothing personal against Keisa,” Trahan said. “She and her family are good people, but a lot of things are not being done right and we need to make sure the elections are done right.”

With so many questions some people, including Traham, have doubted the integrity of the election.

“If it hadn’t been for voter irregularities and voter fraud, it would have been a fair and square election,” Trahan said.

Lemoine, who has not returned calls from the American Press, has never publicly responded to the allegations of election irregularities and voter fraud. Among those allegations are claims that voters used addresses that did not exist and claimed homestead exemptions in other parishes.

To trigger a recall election, organizers need to collect valid signatures from 245 of the active voters per the Secretary of State’s Office. That represents 40 percent of the 612 registered voters.

Those signatures must be certified by the Registrar of Voters Office before the petition is forwarded to the governor. If the required number of signatures is met, the governor has 15 days to call a recall election.

Trahan said there were issues validating the signatures on the last petition which caused it to be rejected.

Problems included lack of witness signatures and invalid addresses as required by the state. Dates and other information were also missing from the petition.

“We want to do this one right and the way the state wants it done,” Trahan said.

The group plans to review the petition to make sure all signatures are dated correctly, have been witnessed and all necessary information is provided before it is submitted, he said.

Granger said she has already been going door-to-door to collect and witness the signatures.

Of those who signed the last petition, 45 were not registered to vote in Elton, including 8 who were registered to vote outside the parish, according to Registrar of Voters Joann Blair. Only 254 were residents of Elton, 13 signatures were duplicates and one signature did not appear to match the signature on voter records on file.