An attempt to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom has reached the minimum number of signatures needed to initiate a recall, the organizers behind the recall announced.
Consider Gavin Newsom which launched last year and collected more than 900,000 signatures at the end of December. The recall said it had collected more than 1.4 million signatures in early February and a total of 1,509,000 signatures by Friday.
State law requires a recall campaign to receive support from a specific number of registered voters to trigger a recall. In this case, valid signatures from 1,495,709 California voters – a number equivalent to 12 percent of the votes cast in the election that Newsom won to become governor – from at least five counties were required to sign the petition by the deadline. from March.
Once the California Secretary of State has determined that the campaign has garnered enough valid signatures, an election will be held to let voters decide whether or not they want Newsom to remain in office.
Remember that Gavin Newsom set a goal of collecting 1.8 million signatures in the expectation that some would fail with the Secretary of State.
IRFAN KHAN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
This isn’t the first recall that Newsom has faced since he was elected governor with nearly 62 percent of the vote in 2018, but it’s the campaign that has gained the most traction. The effort is fueled in part by frustrations with the restrictions put in place as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers also cite the Democratic Governor’s positions on pre-COVID-19 issues, including gun laws and immigration policies, as reasons for their efforts.
The organizers say on the campaign’s website that the effort is not being driven by a single political party, and they criticize allegations that supporters of the movement have links with QAnon and other far-right groups. Instead, organizers say the movement is backed by voters from diverse political backgrounds and represents a “mass uprising” in California.
Randy Economy, a senior advisor for the campaign, said Newsweek in December that this recall is notable to him because it is backed by Californians who typically don’t get involved in politics.
The recall is “sort of a perfect tidal wave of citizens who have never done anything in politics – ever, and that’s what I mean – who decided they wanted to give it a try,” Economy said. Newsweek at the time. A key part of the campaign’s success are the frustrations voters feel after months of living with the pandemic and the restrictions put in place at the state level, he said. Attending Newsom at a dinner party at the French Laundry last November, which was in violation of the state’s recommendations to gather with individuals from outside the household, only served to stir up those already frustrated with the lockdowns .
On the last day of 2020, Economy said Newsweek that he believed this recall would be successful. “I think this time is different,” he said. “Sometimes in politics and in life you have that one-time chance for the average citizen to make a difference. This is that moment in California history.”
Economy told KTTV on Thursday that the recall had reached nearly 1.5 million signatures. The effort was further supported by the national GOP, which invested $ 250,000 to help remove Newsom from office.
According to the California Secretary of State’s website, ten recalls have been eligible for a California recall since 1913, only six of which resulted in the intended officer being removed from office. The only California governor to be successfully recalled was Gray Davis, a Democrat removed and replaced in 2003 by former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Davis told Newsweek last month that he believes Newsom will win reelection in 2022.
Newsweek contacted Newsom’s office for comment and will update this article with each response.