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RecallGavin2020 California bear. (Photo: recallgavin2020.com)

BREAKING: Fewer Than 40 Recall Newsom Signatures Rescinded Statewide

Globe exclusive: California SOS had 30 days to contact recall signers about removing signature

By Katy Grimes, June 10, 2021 1:28 pm

UPDATE Below: It appears that only 36 California voters who signed the RecallGavin2020 recall petition have removed their signatures.

Susan Walsh, a senior volunteer with the RecallGavin2020.com campaign contacted every county election office in the state following the June 8th deadline, and asked how many recall petition signers removed their names.

Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper.

“I was worried at first that the numbers would be in the thousands,” Walsh told the Globe in an exclusive interview. However, early on in her calls, Walsh noticed the exceedingly low number of rescinded signatures.

To qualify this recall for the ballot, 1,495,709 signatures were required. The recall petition gatherers turned in 2,161,349 signatures. Of those, 1,719,943 were validated by the Secretary of State. This left a cushion of 224,234 extra signatures.

Recall law changed

During the recall of California State Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) in 2017 and 2018, the Assembly Committee on Elections and Redistricting, passed a law extending the amount of time between the qualification of a recall petition and the actual election, hoping to save Newman. But they were sued by taxpayer advocate groups and lost. “The recall was meant to be a quick remedy,” President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association Jon Coupal said at the time. “This is directly contrary to the intent.”

However, that law is on the books now and applies to the current recall election of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. This law has added additional recall procedures and lengthened the time before the actual election will take place after qualifying for the ballot.

California just crossed one of those hurdles: the 30 day period just ended in which the California Secretary of State has to contact petition signers and ask if they understood what they signed and if they want to remove their name from the petition.

And weirdly, several counties refused to provide the numbers. Alameda County, San Bernardino, Merced, Stanislaus, San Diego and Los Angeles Counties did not provide the numbers of rescinded signatures. Merced and Stanislaus Counties claimed that they have until June 22 to turn the report in, despite Walsh telling them that June 8th was the deadline.

Only a few counties said they’d need to get back to Walsh.

Most counties reported zero rescinded signatures:

  • Fresno County was the highest with 10 signature removals.
  • Ventura County had 5 signatures rescinded.
  • San Francisco had 4 signatures rescinded.
  • Sonoma County had 3 signatures rescinded.
  • Placer County, Sacramento County, San Joaquin, and San Luis Obispo had 2.
  • Orange, Santa Clara, Solano and Tulare Counties had 1 signature rescinded.

The remaining counties reported no signatures rescinded or removed.

Here is the tally:

Alpine 0
Amador 0
Butte 0
Calavares 0
Colusa 0
Contra Costa 0
Del Norte 0
El Dorado 0
Fresno 10
Glen 0
Humbolt 0
Imperiel
Inyo 0
Kern 0
Kings 0
Lake 0
Lassen 0
Los Angeles
Madera 0
Marin 0
Mariposa
Mendocino 0
Merced
Modoc 0
Mono
Monterey 0
Napa 0
Nevada 0
Orange 1
Placer 2
Plumas 0
Riverside
Sacramento 2
San Benito 0
San Bernadino
San Diego
San Francisco 4
San Joaquin 2
San Luis Obispo 2
San Mateo
Santa Barbara
Santa Clara 1
Santa Cruz 0
Shasta 0
Sierra 0
Siskou 0
Solano 1
Sonoma 3
Stanislaus
Sutter 0
Tehama 0
Trinity
Tulare 1
Tuolume 0
Ventura 5
Yolo 0
Yuba 0

Walsh said she’d report back to the Globe when the remaining counties finally report. It will be interesting to see what their numbers look like. As we were going to publish, Walsh said Mono County just reported zero signature removals.

Notably, Sen. Josh Newman authored SB 663 in February to allow a voter who has signed an initiative, referendum, or recall petition to remove their name from the petition 45 days after the petition is filed.

The Globe will follow up once every county has reported.

Following the 30-days to remove signatures, the Secretary of State has 10 days to determine if there are still enough signatures to move ahead with the recall election.

After that verification, the Department of Finance provides an estimate of the cost of the recall election to the Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State and Legislative Budget Committee.

The Legislative Budget Committee then has 30 days to review and comment on the cost estimate by the Department of Finance.

Then, the Secretary of State certifies the recall petitions to the Governor and Lt. Governor.

The Lt. Governor then is required to call a recall election between 60 and 80 days after certification of the signatures.

UPDATE: 6/12/21

Trinity County: zero

San Bernardino County: 1

Mariposa County: 1

Riverside County: 2

Imperial County: zero

Los Angeles County: 7

Orange County: 7

Total: 54 total signers of the recall rescinded their signatures, out of 1,719,943 validated by the Secretary of State.

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45 thoughts on “BREAKING: Fewer Than 40 Recall Newsom Signatures Rescinded Statewide

      1. Susan, I signed the recall petition. I have not been contacted to take back my signature. It is starting to worry me that I was removed by the SOS in the cut down from 2.1M to 1.7M signatures. I know 2 others that signedd and have not been contacted. Is there a way to find out what has happened to our original sugnatures? Keep up the great reporting.
        Thank you,
        Ron

        1. Hmmm… I wasn’t contacted either by the SOS.

          For me it’s okay, just more unexpected voters for the recall.

      2. Why charge the tax payers 215 MILLION dollars for a recall when he is up for reelection in 2022? What a bunch of sore losers! I am sure you and your gang can find a more productive use of your time.

  1. I received a couple of text messages from the Newscum campaign asking if I still supported the radical Republican recall effort. I finally told them to remove my number from their list and if I get any more texts from them, I would file a complaint against them. I told them that they were lying about who organized the recall and that Newscum’s continual changing of the COVID rules was what made me sign it..!!!

    They said that they would remove my number from their list so that I wouldn’t get anymore texts from them.

    1. Can’t say that I BLAME you, David. But GOOD GRIEF! What a GREAT opportunity to sow some seeds of doubt in their campaign by pretending that you support THEM (if you stayed on the list). You could have ingratiated yourself and infiltrated their organization by becoming one of their volunteers. Then passed the info on to us here. I worked for the DoD (military intelligence) so you can see my obviously biased train of thought. Oh, well. 😉

  2. Katy, thanks again for breaking the story. The world needs to know what’s going on in California.

  3. The California Secretary of State’s website states that counties may collect written signature withdrawal requests through June 8, 2021, and they must be submitted to the CA SOS no later than June 22, 2021.

  4. no doubt the number of people who would sign it have at least doubled. if it were still open for signing

    how about that raise he just gave himself for being a dictator?

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