By Cj Wild

The Fairfax recall petition qualified for the ballot — barely.

After months of sidewalk signage, door-knocking, letters to the editor and mock “town halls,” the campaign collected just enough verified signatures to move the effort into a special election. They needed 1,479. They got 1,552 for Mayor Lisel Blash and 1,569 for Vice Mayor Stephanie Hellman. That’s a margin of fewer than 100 signatures. If a few dozen people had reconsidered or double-checked what they were signing, this thing would have fizzled on the spot.

It’s important not to confuse signatures with support.

There are just under 6,000 registered voters in Fairfax. That means more than 74% of residents chose not to sign or were not contacted. In other words, this act of getting just over the minimum was about endurance, not enthusiasm. The recall backers pitched themselves as the voice of the people. But it turns out most of the people were not buying it. Not at the farmers’ market, not on their porch and not when they looked at the fine print.

I don’t consider it a groundswell. It was a technical victory. While I understand that’s enough to move it to the next stage, we should be clear about what it means (and what it does not).

It does not mean Fairfax is broken. It does not mean that its residents are rallying against the mayor or the council. It does not mean a populist wave is sweeping our little town. What it means is that a small, vocal minority pushed hard enough to scrape together the minimum necessary to keep their campaign alive.

But here’s the thing: Rejecting the recall from the start never meant loving every decision the Fairfax Town Council members have made. It doesn’t mean every Fairfax resident is on board with the School Street Plaza housing proposal or with every town process. People can want better communication and better transparency while rejecting a recall narrative that frames our town government as hijacked by villains.

That storyline has collapsed under its own weight and, even now, the math proves it.

So yes, we’re heading into a special election: The Fairfax Town Council will decide in a few weeks when this will take place, most likely later this year. In the meantime, the campaign signs will return. The flyers will multiply. The comment threads will erupt again. And, once again, the energy of our community will be siphoned into a process driven by division, distrust and distraction.

We could be doing better things with that energy.

We could be having real conversations about the role of housing in our town’s future. We could be debating how to protect the things that make Fairfax special while also meeting the moment we’re in. We could be working together. But instead, we’re spinning back into another cycle of recall rhetoric and misdirection.

To the organizers: congratulations. You cleared the bar (just barely).

To the rest of us: The real vote is still ahead. Let’s keep this in perspective.

Fairfax is still here. It’s still ours. And it’s still a community — one that can handle hard conversations without tearing itself apart.

At the end of the day, this has never been about a single project or a single decision. It’s about whether we want to govern by collaboration or by campaign. Whether we want to work together or try to shout each other down.

We already had one vote, even if it wasn’t on paper. The vast majority of voters chose not to sign that petition. That counts and it should shape how we move forward.

Let’s do it with clarity. Let’s do it with compassion. And let’s do it like a town that still believes in itself.

Fairfax deserves that kind of future.

Cj Wild, of Fairfax, is a moderator for the local Nextdoor community.