The official recall campaign against California Governor Gavin Newsom has already collected more than 1,927,000 signatures, organizers announced Wednesday night. Organizers have until March 17 to collect signatures.
A total of 1,497,709 valid signatures must be collected and verified to trigger the revocation election. Election officials have until April 29 to check them.
The announcement was made during an online meeting with campaign leaders who are, among other things, dissatisfied with how governors deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Orrin Heatlie, chairman of the California Patriotic Coalition, RecallGavin2020 Committee said: “We have eliminated another milestone, and we are now entering the final stretch of this part of the official campaign to remove California Governor Gavin Newsom from power and office.”
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“The people of California are talking loud and clear and we will continue to work tirelessly until the People of California become the final judge and jury for this recall,” said RecallGavin2020 co-proponent Mike Netter.
On February 19, the campaign claimed to have 1.7 million signatures and delivered 1,094,457 to California’s Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, confirmed her office. Of these signatures, 668,202 were verified by local election officials, a process that must take place before they are counted. About 140,000 additional signatures were found to be invalid.
The recall organizers indicated that they would like to send 2 million signatures to ensure that there are enough valid entries to guarantee success. The effort’s leaders say they have seen a relatively high rate of verification. If this is true, it would mean that 2 million subscriptions must be more than enough.
When asked about the recall, Newsom repeatedly objected, saying he was focusing on the job ahead of him as governor.
Newsom, in what amounts to a political counter-offensive, has been barnstorming the state for weeks, opening mass vaccination sites and showing up with local officials who extolled his leadership. But many of the governor’s appearances were off-camera, an unusual occurrence for the charismatic Newsom.
In fact, when he announced the news that seven counties in the state were moving to a less restrictive level of his Covid-19 reopening plan this week, Newsom did so at an event that was not publicly broadcast. This is a big change for Newsom, which generally doesn’t mind getting involved with the media, especially when it has positive news.
The governor’s office announced on Wednesday that he will appear on camera next week to deliver his third state of the state speech on Tuesday in a virtual presentation to the California legislature in Los Angeles County.