To support or not to support—is that the question?

The petition to recall Governor Gavin Newsom was introduced in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in California. Since then the COVID crisis is under control and the number of signatures to trigger the recall have been verified. Next, all fifty-eight California counties were to report to the secretary of state by June 22 the number of recall advocates who withdrew their support of the recall. (The signature withdrawal period ended on June 8.)

Is funding the question?

At the time of this writing, it is predicted that the required number of signatures will hold. Election officials have thirty days to come up with a budget to run the election, and the state legislature has an additional thirty days to review that cost estimate before setting a date for the election. That sixty-day period could be preempted by action of the state legislature to fund the election, which could result in a recall election as early as September.

What is the question?

Voters must decipher the two separate questions on the ballot. The first question—yay or nay on recalling the governor—will determine the governor’s fate (making that first question of utmost importance to the governor). If that first question is answered “No” by 50 percent or more of voters, then the second question—essentially “Who would you like to replace him?”—is moot. However, voters will need to vote on both questions at once, since they will not yet know the outcome of the first. If the answer to the first question is “Yes” by more than 50 percent of voters, voters must also have answered the question of who his replacement is to be.

More than forty people are hoping to replace Governor Newsom. For the full list of names, see Ballotpedia. Supporters of Newsom take note: He is not allowed to run as his own replacement.

Stay tuned!

—Martha Y. Zavala