LA DA Gascon Recall Supporters To Turn in Signatures to County Wednesday

Recall DA George Gascon, the group behind the effort to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, are to turn in hundreds of thousands of signatures to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on Wednesday, with the expectation that it will be enough to force a recall vote this November.

Following the election in 2020, Gascon, who previously was the DA of San Francisco, quickly instituted several so-called “reforms,” including ending policies that had juveniles tried as adults, many crimes reduced to misdemeanors or having jail time reduced, and the removal of cash bail for most crimes despite California voters voting to keep it in 2020 in Prop 25. However, these policies led to criminals being emboldened and rising crime in the County, despite the COVID pandemic. Crime rates went up in everything from homicides to robberies. A petition was started up last year, but it fizzled out by October.

Supporters vowed to get another petition in place, and were boosted by the smash and grab crime spree in LA and San Francisco in late 2021. With the public more aware of Gascon’s policies, more and more people began voicing opposition against Gascon. Entire City Councils, including the Beverly Hills City Council, voted outright in favor of his recall, and more than 30 cities in the County voted no confidence in him. The successful signature effort in San Francisco to recall their DA, Chesa Boudin, also encouraged many to give it a second chance.

In late January the second petition was approved by the County, with a deadline of signature gathering being set for July 6th. With high crime, a lack of prosecution attempts against criminals, crime victims believing that the DA supports the criminals more than them, and previous petition factors amplified, the 2022 petition quickly garnered signatures. Many lawmakers and political candidates immediately threw their support behind the recall, and by mid-March over 125,000 signatures were collected. By mid-May, that number had exploded to over 450,000.

Recent incidents, such as Gascon’s poor response to police shootings last month in El Monte and other high profile crimes, as well as the successful recall of SF DA Boudin, helped push forward the idea of a recall election in LA as likely. It has been looking so likely that Gascon has recently been pushing for longer sentences with criminals asking for plea deals in much greater numbers due to their belief that those deals will be off the table if he is recalled.

All of this effort culminates this week, with 566,857 signatures, or 10% of the County’s registered voters, needed to be turned in for the recall.

“The sheer magnitude of this effort, and time and investment required to get to this point, show how strong the public desire is to remove George Gascon from office,” said the Recall DA George Gascon campaign earlier this week. “From day one, this recall has been led by the very victims who Gascon has abandoned, ignored and dismissed. When the recall qualifies, he will not be able to ignore them any longer.”

While it is known that enough signatures have been collected, the final tally of turned in signatures is not known as of Wednesday morning. Supporters wanted between 650,000 and 700,000 collected in case of any invalid signatures, such as those with wrong addresses or duplicates, to maintain the 566,857 valid signatures needed to place the recall on the ballot.

????LAST CHANCE????
TODAY, July 5th, is the last day to sign and return the petition to recall George Gascon.
All petitions must be dropped off at 11835 Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles by 6pm TODAY. #RecallDAGeorgeGascon pic.twitter.com/nTYi6Qcfwx

— RecallDAGeorgeGascon (@DAGasconRecall) July 5, 2022

566,857 signatures needed for Gascon recall

Meanwhile, Gascon has launched back at the effort despite initially waving it off as another ill-fated attempted following the first recall attempt last year. He has blamed Republicans for being behind the effort, and said that all the progress the DA’s office has made in the last few years will be ended should be be forced out of office.

“The Republican-led recall effort in L.A. is on the cusp of qualifying for the ballot this November,” said Gascon last month. “And if they’re successful, they will reverse all our progress.”

However, supporters have fired back that there is support for the recall on all political sides and that the failure of his policies could be felt everywhere around the County.

“He’s failed as a DA,” explained James Long, a neighborhood safety planner in Los Angeles, to the Globe on Wednesday. “When lawyers begin scrambling to get their clients the best deals because they are afraid that the recall may work, you know that this is working. He’s flat out admitted that some of his sentences he pushed for were not adequate for the crime committed. And I won’t even go into how many families of victims who have been angered by him.”

“At a local level, like my neighborhood, we feel the need that we need to protect ourselves to the best of our ability because, even if the police catch a bad guy here doing something, we know Gascon won’t do anything about it. Broader, we have crime rates going up everywhere and Gascon treating the justice system as more of a revolving door, And he wonders why so many are against him.”

The signatures, expected to be between 570,000 and 700,000, are to be turned in at 2 P.M. to the LA County Registrar’s office by supporters, with 6 P.M. the hard deadline. Should enough be counted and verified, a recall election will be triggered, likely on the November ballot.

Update: 717,000 signatures were turned in at 2 P.M., well over the 700,000 mark quoted by the recall group. This figure is likely enough to trigger a recall later this year.