COEUR d'ALENE - Signed. Sealed. Delivered.

Much the way the recall effort began - with recall supporters holding signs and chanting support near the front door of City Hall - RecallCdA turned in its petitions Monday, two months after the recall drive began.

But instead of the 20 signatures needed to kick off the recall effort back in April, RecallCdA delivered around 5,300 signed names calling for an election to vote on the fate of four city incumbents.

"I think we, the volunteer group who has worked to achieve this, I think we've exceeded our expectations," RecallCdA organizer Frank Orzell said outside City Hall after the petitions had been dropped off, copied and transferred to the Kootenai County Elections Department to begin the certification process. "I am so proud of the community; the people who signed the petitions, who stood up in spite of whatever intimidation or reprisals they may have imagined or in fact suffered or could have suffered. And I am absolutely overwhelmed by the immense effort of the volunteers."

While Monday's turn-in marked the end of signature collecting, it wasn't the final step in the whole process - not by a long shot.

The county's election department is now certifying each signature. The certification process is expected to take a week, and will verify whether each signature represents a valid Coeur d'Alene voter. Of the roughly 5,300 signatures RecallCdA turned in, 4,311 must be valid registered voters on each of the four petitions to prompt a recall of City Council members Mike Kennedy, Woody McEvers and Deanna Goodlander, as well as Mayor Sandi Bloem.

Certification should be completed by Tuesday, June 19 and the outcome will be released at 5 that evening. If a recall is warranted, an election would likely be held either Aug. 28 or Nov. 6.

Jennifer Drake, co-organizer of the recall's counter movement, Stop the Recall, said her group will examine a copy of the signatures and registered voter's list this week to find out if the effort will go to ballot.

Even if it does, voters will have the final say, which means there will still be work to do combating the recall leading up to an election, she said. And having 5,300 people sign means that around 40,000 Coeur d'Alene residents didn't sign, she added, representing 90 percent of the total population.

"The people who have been fighting this, fighting for a positive future, I hope they continue to fight," said Drake, who was also at City Hall Monday with co-organizer Sara Meyer as the petitions were turned in. "This certainly isn't the end. Even if this whole process goes through, this is still our town, our community and we certainly have to raise our families here. So we will absolutely work for a positive future for our town."

City officials copied the petitions and sent the originals to the county elections department. By the city's count, 5,384 signed Bloem's petition, 5,327 signed Kennedy's, 5,314 signed Goodlander's and 5,267 signed McEvers'.

While the outcome will be decided next week, turn-in day came as somewhat of a relief, said Goodlander. She said it will be nice not having signature gatherers waving signs on street corners anymore, which doesn't make an attractive sight for visitors who flock to Coeur d'Alene in the summer.

"Now we can move on with it and find out how many registered voters signed and see what our next step is," she said. "That's pretty much where I'm at: Get on with it and see what happens."

By Monday afternoon, Stop The Recall had questioned petitions submitted on behalf of Rodney Bitterman. Bitterman is the petitioner who was recorded using incorrect information while soliciting signatures on Tubbs Hill in late April. A KREM-2 television report from May 30 states that Orzell told the channel he would not submit Bitterman's petitions.

Orzell is not quoted directly; the reporter paraphrases what Orzell reportedly told him. Orzell told The Press Monday afternoon that he didn't believe he committed one way or the other on whether to turn in Bitterman's petitions and that he didn't do anything wrong with submitting them since the Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office said it won't pursue charges against Bitterman.

"He's been cleared," Orzell said.

The recall - spurred largely by the incumbents approving a $14.2 million park plan while not supporting a public advisory vote on it - has been a politically divisive issue. Both sides have accused the other of using misleading information while presenting their sides, and of treating the other side rudely. Petitioners standing on street corners have been jeered and cheered by passersby.

When Orzell dropped off the 20 original signatures at City Hall April 4 to kick start the recall, it had been snowing. Monday, it was sunny, and after Orzell dropped off the box full of signatures, he thanked the supporters holding signs that read '5,300 can't be wrong' outside City Hall.

"It's one of the most important days in Coeur d'Alene history," said Keith Peila, one of the supporters holding a sign and wearing a hat with recall slogans. "The people have spoken."

"It's been a struggle," Orzell told The Press. "It's taken a lot of work. It's taken a lot of courage, a lot of heart, and a lot of dedication."

If an election is warranted, City Clerk Susan Weathers would choose the election date.

To lose their jobs, incumbents would have to receive fewer votes for them than against them, and there's a second threshold that must be reached: the number of votes against them in a recall must exceed the number of votes each received in the 2009 general election.

In 2009, Mike Kennedy earned 3,162 votes, Woody McEvers 3,280, Deanna Goodlander 3,146, and Mayor Sandi Bloem earned 3,955.

Kennedy said that while Monday marked the end of signature collecting, next week, when the results are known, marks the true test.

"Tuesday is the real deadline," Kennedy emailed The Press. "Based on what the RecallCDA people were saying I expected many, many more signatures than they presented. We will see how many are verified."