The lawyer for the Bloomberg-backed Morse recall defense group, Mark Grueskin, has sued to invalidate the Morse recall petition over a technicality – that the petition didn’t specifically call for a replacement, just the recall of Morse. Only it turns out that lack of replacement language is due to boilerplate language in Secretary of State forms dating back at least to Democrat Bernie Buescher’s tenure.

The lack of mentioning a replacement didn’t come from a legal document that someone drafted – it came from an official Secretary of State form, with gaps that recallers simply fill in.

Learning this, liberals will try to blame Gessler.

But hold the honey badger. 

The operative portion of the form that El Paso residents pulled to recall Morse – the one Grueskin is attempting to invalidate – is just the same as the language used during the Bernie Buescher era of the Secretary of State.

The form that the Morse recall organizers filled out stated:

Petition to recall (insert name of person sought to be recalled) from the office of (Insert title of office).

This is an updated form from 2010, when the form was created by Democratic Secretary of State Bernie Buescher. You can see that form at the end of the post. The important part is this:

PETITION TO RECALL __________________________ FROM THE OFFICE OF _______________________

Think of it this way…a liberal lawyer being paid by Mayor Michael Bloomberg is suing a citizen’s group for filling in the blanks of a state-drafted, state-sanctioned recall form that has been used by Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State for a very, very long time.

This legal challenge is grasping, folks. Grasping at jack squat.

UPDATE: The Morse recall group’s legal counsel, Erik Groves, weighs in:

“We have reviewed the protest that was filed and find it to be without merit and contrary to decades of law supporting the fundamental right of the people to recall their elected officials. The committee used a petition form that was edited and approved by the Secretary of State’s office and complies with all the requirements clearly specified in both the Colorado Constitution and the Colorado Revised Statutes. We are supremely confident that the protest will be found to be groundless and the recall of John Morse will continue as planned.”

2010 Recall Petition SOS Form