REHOBOTH — Efforts to again recall Selectman Christopher P. Morra began yesterday after a judge shut down the first attempt late last month.

Reclaim Rehoboth, the group leading the charge, had resident and School Committee member Mary Beth Moriarty filling out petitions for more than three hours yesterday morning in Town Hall. The group has to have more than 1,180 registered voters — which total 15 percent of the registered voters in each of Rehoboth’s three precincts — sign the petitions by Oct. 30 to force another special election.

The members collected that many, and a couple hundred more, in less than a week in their initial recall efforts. Yet Morra challenged the petition process, the petition itself, how Town Clerk Kathleen Conti certified the signatures and several other matters.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Kane sided with Morra on at least one of his objections, particularly that the act of attesting to the genuineness of signatures before they were collected lacked “common sense.” Kane then barred the town from having the scheduled October special election between Morra and the group’s pick, Finance Committee member Gerald Schwall.

“We’ve taken all of his objections to heart,” Conti said regarding the town’s responsibilities. She also said the procedure followed the last time by town officials was “100 percent perfectly legal” and “exactly” in order with the town’s “past practice.” “…I certainly hope he comes to the clear understanding that everything is being done by the book and that there isn’t any favoritism.”

The new petition form — which is the most obvious change — has additional spaces on the front and back for Moriarty to sign after the signatures are collected. As another safeguard, Reclaim Rehoboth even videotaped Moriarty as she filled out most of the forms.

In addition, Conti recently received unanimous consent from the town Board of Registrars to have her staff and herself certify the signatures collected without the full board being present. They also granted her permission to stamp their signature on the forms after all is certified.

If the recall process is carried out in the timeline provided by Rehoboth’s Recall Act, Conti said the selectmen could set a special election date for a Monday in mid-January.

“I’m going to be holding [Rehoboth’s legal counsel, Max Volterra’s] hand throughout the whole process as an abundance of caution,” Conti said. “I like responsibility, but I’m also afraid because you don’t know what simple thing is going to be misconstrued. I want to say, ‘Don’t shoot the messenger.’ This is my livelihood. I value my good name.’”

Resident Wanda Hanson, a Reclaim Rehoboth member, said, “The need to ‘hold the hand,’ the self questioning, fear of repercussion and intimidation is why we’re doing this. We’ve lost too many good people [because of Morra’s methods].”

When asked to elaborate, she said, “It’s not Morra, the man. It’s Morra, the practice. … It’s his political behavior…. So much of town government is being ignored because of personal vendetta and matters people don’t care about.”

Reclaim Rehoboth called the judge’s halt a “bump in the road.” They said a second attempt is “the right thing to do,” the “desire still exists” to overthrow Morra and the “path is clear” now.

“I certainly hope, since he says he has hundreds of supporters, that he will welcome an election,” Moriarty said. “I think its time he let the Democratic process take place. I certainly hope he’ll stop costing the town money [in legal fees] by protesting it. Reclaim Rehoboth cost the town nothing.”

Morra disagrees completely. He said the group “cost this town thousands of dollars” by not following Rehoboth’s Recall Act, which specifically spells out what should be done and how. He said it would not have gone to court if it had been done properly.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with these people,” he said yesterday. Repeating what Reclaim Rehoboth members said about him yesterday, Morra said, “These people think the laws don’t apply to them.”

And after hearing 200 petition forms were filled out to be distributed, Morra continued, “If you think you have a good cause, follow the law. But it already sounds like they’re not.”

He said the legislation says a “sufficient” quantity of forms should be distributed. In a Rehoboth recall in 1998, 25 forms were given to the petitioner and in 1994, Morra said, 20 were given out. Each form had space for 46 registered voters to put their signatures, therefore 25 and 20 forms could hold 1,150 or 920 signatures, respectively.

The new form holds 50 signatures, so Morra believes Conti shouldn’t have given Moriarty more than 30 petitions. Morra said any more than that opens the door to “fraud.”

“Judge Kane had to give them a lesson in English and common sense the last time,” the selectman said. “If you don’t know the law or don’t want to follow it, don’t get involved. Yet it is what it is and if it wasn’t for bad people, you wouldn’t know what a good one is.”

When asked if he’ll take the town to court again, Morra said he wouldn’t speculate on the future.

He said, “We’ll see what goes on over the next couple of weeks.”

apina@projo.com