After they finish this step (by April 29 for the Newsom recall), voters have 30 days to remove their signatures from the petitions if they want. Then counties report to the Secretary of State how many signatures they received and how many were invalid. As they go through the petitions, they make notes in their computer system to keep track of voters that signed a petition and strike any duplicates. If a voter’s signature on the petition is significantly different from what’s on their registration card, it doesn’t count.Įlections officials also make sure each voter is only counted once. When they examine signatures, they’re supposed to look at the slant of the handwriting, the spacing between letters, and other factors - including how t’s are crossed and the shape of the loop on a g or a j. Kelley’s office has 15 people who do this job, each one assigned a batch of petitions. “People don’t realize the amount of time that goes into ensuring that it’s right.” “It’s a pretty labor-intensive process,” he said. Finally, they check their work, said Neal Kelley, Orange County’s registrar of voters. Then, they look at each signature and match it against the signature on a voter’s registration card. Signature verification takes place at the registrar of voters for each of California’s 58 counties.įirst, county election officials manually count the number of signatures that have been turned in. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMattersCalifornia has a long-established procedure for making sure that the people who sign petitions are who they say they are. Here’s a look at the process that will unfold over the next few months: More than 100 people ran to replace him, carving up the votes and allowing action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger to win with 48.6 percent support.Įven though local election officials have said they’ve counted enough valid signatures to trigger a recall election, there are a lot of bureaucratic steps before an election can take place. Gray Davis was recalled by 55 percent of voters. That’s what happened in 2003, when then-Gov. So it’s entirely possible that someone could be elected in a recall while winning less than half the votes. And whoever gets the most votes wins - even without a majority. There’s no limit on the number of candidates who can run to replace an official on a recall ballot. Voters will be asked two questions: Do they want to recall Newsom, yes or no? And, if more than 50 percent of voters say “yes,” who should replace him?.An election will be held later this year. A date depends on when various preliminary steps are done, but would likely be in the fall.State officials must complete a few more steps to finalize the process, and then: With many schools, churches and businesses closed by Newsom’s stay-at-home orders, the recall that began as a conservative rebuke of his progressive policies has morphed into a referendum on his pandemic response.Įlection officials announced on April 26 that the recall campaign submitted 1,626,042 valid signatures - enough to qualify for the ballot. The count grew as the state’s unemployment system paid out billions to fraudsters, and its chaotic COVID vaccine distribution left people scrambling for shots. But it gained a surge of signatures after news broke in November that a maskless Newsom joined lobbyists for a dinner party at the posh French Laundry restaurant, even though he was telling Californians to mask up and avoid socializing. The recall petition doesn’t say a word about the pandemic - it was written before the virus upended normal life. But the coronavirus pandemic shifted California’s political landscape in two significant ways: It prompted a judge to give recall supporters more time to collect signatures - keeping their campaign alive long enough to gain momentum - and it led Newsom to enact a slew of new restrictions to curb the spread of the virus that have frustrated some Californians and energized recall backers. It’s hard to fathom in this deep blue state where Newsom clobbered his 2018 GOP opponent, although his job approval among voters has plunged from its high in the early months of the pandemic. He’s working to fend off a recall that began as a far-fetched effort by Republican activists - but has turned into a credible campaign that could throw the Democrat out of office. Gavin Newsom is fighting for his political life.
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