An effort to revoke California Governor Gavin Newsom has reached the minimum number of signatures required to trigger a revocation election, the organizers behind the recall campaign announced on Friday.
Recall Gavin Newsom was launched last year and has accumulated over 900,000 subscriptions by the end of December. The recall campaign said it collected more than 1.4 million signatures in early February and a total of 1,509,000 signatures by Friday.
State law dictates that a recall campaign must enlist the support of a specific number of registered voters to trigger a recall. In that case, valid signatures of 1,495,709 California voters – a figure equivalent to 12 percent of the votes cast in the election Newsom won to become governor – of at least five counties needed to sign the petition by the March campaign deadline. .
Once the California Secretary of State determines that the campaign has collected enough valid signatures, a revocation election will be scheduled to allow voters to decide whether they want Newsom to remain in office or not.
Remember that Gavin Newsom has set a goal of collecting 1.8 million signatures, anticipating that some would not be approved by the secretary of state’s office.
IRFAN KHAN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
This is not the first recall campaign that Newsom has faced since he was elected governor with almost 62 percent of the vote in 2018, but it is the campaign that has gained the most traction. The effort is fueled in part by the frustrations surrounding the restrictions put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers also cite the Democratic governor’s positions on issues prior to COVID-19 as reasons for their efforts, including firearms laws and immigration policies.
Organizers say on the campaign’s website that the effort is not directed by any political party, and they were angered by allegations that supporters of the movement have links to QAnon and other far-right groups. Instead, organizers say the movement is supported by voters from diverse political backgrounds and represents a “mass uprising” in California.
Randy Economy, a senior advisor to the campaign, said Newsweek in December, this recall effort is notable for him because it has the support of Californians who are not normally involved in politics.
The recall campaign is “a kind of perfect tidal wave of citizens who have never done anything in politics before – never, and I really meant it – who have decided they want to stab it,” said Economy Newsweek at the time. A significant component to the campaign’s success are the frustrations voters feel after months of living with the pandemic and restrictions introduced at the state level, he said. Newsom’s participation in a dinner at the French Laundry last November, which violated the state’s recommendations to meet with people outside the home, only served to ignite those who were already frustrated by the blockades.
On the last day of 2020, the Economy said Newsweek that he believed this recall campaign would be successful. “I think this time is different,” he said. “Sometimes, in politics and in life, you have that once in a lifetime opportunity for ordinary residents to make a difference. This is that moment in California history.”
Economy told KTTV on Thursday that the recall campaign was close to reaching 1.5 million subscriptions. The effort was further aided by the national GOP, which invested $ 250,000 to help remove Newsom from office.
Ten recall campaigns have qualified for a recall election in California since 1913, only six of which resulted in the removal of the targeted officer, according to the California Secretary of State’s website. The only California governor to be successfully recalled was Gray Davis, a Democrat who was removed in 2003 and replaced by former Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Davis said Newsweek last month, that he believes Newsom will be re-elected in 2022.
Newsweek has contacted the Newsom office for comment and will update this article with any response.