The next election to determine governor for California isn’t expected until 2022, but many California Republicans want to have Gavin Newsom out of office by sometime this year. They have started what is called the “recall process.” This is not impeachment but rather a vote by the citizens of California on whether their governor should be removed from office. This event only occurred once in 2003 when Governor Gray Davis was recalled and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The process has many steps, so I will go over them for you in this article.
The first step is to collect signatures. In order for a governor to be recalled in California, you need about 12 percent of the total votes in the last election, which is about 1.5 million signatures. This was initiated at the beginning of this year and is in response to Newsome’s handling of the pandemic (NOTE: This is not bi-partisan and is being run by the California Republican Party). The deadline to turn these signatures in was March 17th and the county election officials had until April 29th to verify the two million signatures turned in.
Once these signatures are verified, they are sent to the Secretary of State and the voters have ten days to tell county officials if there are enough signatures to have a recall election. After that ten-day period, people who signed the petition will have thirty days to remove their signatures, if they choose to do so. If there are still enough signatures (which there will be), the Department of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee will take several weeks to review the results and analyze the cost of a recall election. Then by mid-September, the Secretary of State will certify the results and the Lieutenant Governor will have 60-80 days to schedule the election, which will most likely take place in mid-November.
Governor Newsom has already signed a bill saying that the state will send a mail-in ballot to every citizen for this year’s election. On the ballot, there will be two measures to vote for: “Should Governor Newsom be recalled?” and “Who should replace him?” Republicans, such as former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, Republican Congressman Doug Ose, and former Newsome opponent, John Cox are all looking to run on the ballot. The Democrats are facing a dilemma: do they put candidates on the ballot in the case Newsome is recalled or hope the first step will fail? The problem with the first idea is that a Democratic candidate on the ballot other than Newsome could encourage other Democrats to vote for removing Newsome. The second option is most likely, in this case. Three polls have been conducted, and none of them show Newsome being recalled. This is an extremely interesting and intricate process that is expected to go to the polls but come time to vote, will most likely not succeed.
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