(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

With multiple scandals affecting the city’s elected officials, everyone from Mayor Vince Gray to Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) have started hearing one of the two dreaded r-words in local politics — resign or recall.

Ever since allegations broke this week that Thomas allegedly used city funds meant for children on a luxury SUV and lavish trips, the embattled Ward 5 Councilmember has been repeatedly asked if he would resign. So far Thomas has said he won’t, but that’s not to say he won’t change his mind — yesterday he reversed course on an original refusal to give up his seat on the D.C. Council’s Economic Development, after all.

Today, it’s Gray that’s being threatened with another r-word — recall — a process through which District voters could literally vote him out of office, mid-term. In a press release released this afternoon, activist Frederick Butler announced that he was starting a movement to recall Gray, saying that the mayor’s “acts of malfeasance…are inexcusable and an embarrassment to D.C.” (Fun fact: Butler is closely linked to Sinclair Skinner, one of the fraternity brothers of Mayor Adrian Fenty that was at the center of a parks and rec contracting scandal last year and who has already said that he thinks Gray should resign.)

Council Chair Kwame Brown was also threatened with a recall earlier this year during his own scandals, but the ongoing saga with Gray and the new allegations against Thomas seem to have quieted the waters somewhat for the District’s second-highest elected official. (Brown’s resignation has also been suggested.)

Of course, while it’s easy to demand that someone resign or threaten them with a recall, both are ultimately hard to come by in local politics. A number of Thomas’ colleagues have ethical problems of their own to deal with, and one specifically — Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) — has survived multiple demands that he step down in response to a number of controversies. In fact, in the close to four decades since Home Rule was installed, not one member of the D.C. Council has ever resigned their post due to scandal.

As for a recall, well, it would a tall order indeed, especially for a citywide official like Gray or Brown. D.C. electoral laws mandate that for any recall request to actually make it to the ballot, its proponents have to gather signatures from 10 percent of registered voters — and they can only do so after their target has been in office for a full year. A recall can’t take place in an official’s final year in office, either.

Voter registration figures through April 30 put the total number of registered voters in the District at 457,152 — so any recall effort would need to obtain close to 46,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot. (By comparison, a candidate for citywide office only needs 2,000 signatures to get on the ballot.) Moreover, 10 percent of residents of five of the city’s eight wards have to sign on, meaning that someone looking to recall Gray couldn’t just rely exclusively on Ward 3’s 57,000 registered voters. If that doesn’t seem tough enough, all of this has to happen in 180 days. (The news isn’t so rosy for Thomas, however: ward-based councilmembers can be recalled more easily, requiring only 10 percent of the registered voters in their ward to get the proposal on the ballot.)

So while there might be a lot of r-words being thrown around for our scandal-ridden elected officials, resignation and recalls hardly ever happen. Of course, that’s not to say that they may not this time around — especially if the U.S. Attorney decides to press charges against any of the accused.