With the Urbana mayoral recall election coming up in November, some voters may be wondering how the process works and what their vote means. The ballot includes two separate decisions: whether Mayor Bill Bean should be removed from office and who should replace him if the recall is successful.
Voting YES means you want to remove Bean from office, while voting NO means you want him to remain mayor. The recall passes if more than half of the votes cast on that question are YES.
Eugene E. Fields, Jr., is the only candidate listed to replace Bean. Under Ohio law, the candidate who receives the most votes is elected if the recall succeeds. Since Fields is the only candidate, there is no opponent he needs to beat, and the law does not set a specific number or percentage of votes he must receive.
If the recall passes, Bean is removed from office, and Fields would take over as mayor for the remainder of the term, which ends December 31, 2027. If the recall fails, Bean remains mayor, regardless of how many votes Fields receives.
The key distinction is that voters are deciding two things: whether to recall Bean and whether to elect Fields as his potential replacement. The recall must pass before Fields can take office.
