They needed 7,967 signatures to force a recall election aimed at Mayor John Cook.

They had 7,156 as of today’s 5 p.m. deadline, said the group’s leader Lee Urias said.

Max Smart would have held up two fingers, very close together and said, "Missed it by that much."

811 signatures, to be exact, assuming all of them were registered El Paso voters, that none signed twice and that they passed muster on other points.

“It was amazing. We expected to get 3,000 to 4,000 signatures,” Urias said.

Cook was breathing easier, thinking TGIF.

From a personal standpoint, I’m relieved,” he said. “I’m not going to have to go through the process of waiting to see if the signatures are valid and sufficient.

“From the mayor’s perspective, being a guardian of the taxpayers’ money, I think it is a good thing that it failed,” he said, noting that a special mayoral election would have collided with next spring’s regular city elections.

“I still think it was politically motivated to impact whatever popularity I may have.” said Cook, who intends to run for a second term.

But the 19-day petition drive, fueled by public ire over the new stormwater utility rates, did come very close in a very short time.

Normally, a recall petition effort normally would have 60 days from the time organizers officially notify the city that the effort is beginning.

This effort was up against a City Charter provision prohibiting recall efforts against elected officials during the last year of a term.

Urias said with a few more days, they would have had the signatures they needed.

Urias, who challenged his initial stormwater assessment and won a substantial reduction, said he nor the others have had their fervor dampened by the series of reductions the Public Service Board has made in stormwater fees since the first bills landed in El Paso mail boxes in April, igniting an uprising.

The PSB reduced rates by 35 percent for homes and nonresidential properties, cut rates for schools, nonprofits and churches by 75 percent on top of that and then reduced public school rates by another 90 percent.