A Plano City Council member facing backlash for an anti-Islam video he shared on Facebook in February is suing to get the question of whether to recall him removed from November's ballot.

Tom Harrison, 73, has declined to step down before the end of his term in May. Mayor Harry LaRosiliere and others called for him to resign after he shared a post that said "Share if you think Trump should ban Islam in American schools."

Harrison apologized for the "unintentional hurt" caused by the post, but residents began a recall petition to oust him from his seat.

A question on the Nov. 6 ballot will ask voters: "Shall Tom Harrison be removed from the office of Council Member Place 7 by recall?"

A motion filed Tuesday in a state appeals court aims to "force a proper airing" of the recall vote, a Harrison spokesman said.

City Secretary Lisa Henderson said in April that a 4,425-signature petition surpassed the number of signatures necessary to trigger a recall.

The city charter says that the number of signatures on a valid petition should equal at least 30 percent of the number of votes cast at a regular municipal election, but doesn't specify which general election should be used to gauge that number.

Tom Harrison (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

The number Henderson used, from the 2015 election in which Harrison was voted into office, was lower than that of the most recent general election.

Harrison's lawyer, Art Martinez de Vara, argues that city precedents and common sense dictate it should be the most recent general election that's used, and that Henderson abused the discretion of her position by deciding otherwise. Thirty percent of the 2017 election turnout would have required 8,163 signatures.

The city secretary's office has consistently used data from the municipal election during which the council member was elected, the city said in a statement.

Should the court agree with the motion, the recall petition would be decertified — voters could begin a new one, but the original signatures would be considered void, Martinez de Vara said.