The recall petition circulating in McKinney has about a month left to run, and the gap between where it is and where it needs to be is the clearest measure of the effort so far.
Organizers must file 5,805 valid signatures from registered McKinney voters with the City Secretary by 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. Recall organizer John Aselton told the Dallas Express last week that the campaign had gathered about 1,500.
That figure comes from the campaign and has not been independently verified. The threshold itself has been checked: 5,805 is exactly 30 percent of the 19,350 ballots cast in McKinney's May 3, 2025 mayoral contest, according to Collin County's official summary report, which is what the city charter requires.
The committee has said it is aiming for 7,500 to leave room for signatures that get thrown out during verification.
What the petition targets
Five registered voters executed a notarized affidavit on Aug. 11 and filed it the following day. The petition names Mayor Bill Cox, At Large 1 Council Member Ernest Lynch, District 3 Council Member Geré Feltus and District 1 Council Member Justin Beller. The sworn ground is a loss of confidence in their representation of McKinney citizens.
The filing came about a week after the City Council voted 7-0 on Aug. 4 to approve a site plan for a mosque and Islamic center, and most coverage has connected the two. The affidavit itself does not cite that vote, and organizers have said the campaign is about city spending, transparency, growth and infrastructure rather than any single decision.
A contested fortnight
Residents packed the council chamber on Aug. 18 to speak against the recall. Several rejected claims that local Muslim residents wanted religious law to displace civil law. Resident Mo Azfal Choudhary told the meeting he knew of no Muslims seeking to replace the U.S. Constitution, and noted that Muslim Americans have served and died in the military.
Running alongside that is a dispute over how signatures are being collected.
Former Mayor George Fuller, now a McKinney Community Development Corp. board member, has argued that signing is a public act and that names and addresses on a filed petition become public record. The McKinney Recall Committee replied that access to a government record is "not a license for political intimidation." Recall organizer John Aselton has said people tried to disrupt signing sites.
Fuller has denied directing, authorizing or encouraging anyone to disrupt petition sites or confront signers, and says his comments concern political accountability. A separate disagreement involves a video Fuller shared: an organizer said he paired her photograph with another woman's audio, which Fuller disputes.
