Bricker

This is an original application for a writ of mandate to compel the city clerk of Stockton to certify and file two petitions, one for the recall of a city councilman and the other for the recall of four other city councilmen, and to compel the city council to call a special election to determine whether the councilmen named in the petitions shall be recalled. The city clerk refused to certify and file either petition on the ground that in each of them the statement of the reasons for demanding the recall contained more than two hundred words and one of them on the further ground that it demanded the recall of four city councilmen.

The charter of the city of Stockton provides for the recall of elective officers thereof. Article XXVIII, section 2, relating to recall of officers provides: “The petition must contain a statement of the reasons for the demand.” (Stats. 1923, p. 1394.) Section 5 of the same article provides: “In the published call for the election there shall be printed in not more than two hundred words the reasons for demanding the recall of the officer as set forth in the recall petition.” Each petition involved herein contains nearly three hundred words in the…