California Recall Election Is On After Few Signatures Withdrawn From Petition

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – The recall election is officially on. The California Secretary of State on Wednesday confirmed that the petition to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom still had a sufficient number of signatures after a 30-day period where voters were allowed to withdraw their names.

Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber notified the Department of Finance that only 43 signatures were withdrawn from the petition during the 30-day period from April 26 to June 8.

A total of 1,719,900 verified signatures remained, which is well over the required 1,495,709 signatures – which is 12% of the votes cast the last time the governor's office was on the ballot in 2018.

Next, the Department of Finance will move to determine the cost of the gubernatorial recall election, which must be submitted by August 5 to the governor, secretary of state and the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

Gov. Newsom's handling of the pandemic has been a driving force behind the recall efforts. The governor recently reopened the state with minimal coronavirus-related restrictions in place and recently handed out millions of dollars, among other incentives, to vaccinated individuals in the state.

The last gubernatorial recall election was in 2003 when Gov. Gray Davis was in office. Davis was the only California governor to lose a recall election since it has been a part of the state's political system.