Recall Procedure, History and Background

In California, a recall petition is a state constitutional right of the voters to remove an elected official from office. (Cal.Const., Art. II, Secs. 13-19; Elections Code § 11000 et seq.)

Any registered voter in California may initiate a recall effort and Any state officer may be recalled.

The “proponents” of the recall are people of the state (voters) who initiate the recall.  They sign the initial document (Notice of intent to petition) and control the gathering of signatures during the recall. All of the proponents of a recall must be registered voters who are qualified to vote for the office of the officer they seek to recall. (Elections Code §§ 322, 11005)

There is specific criteria, regulations and guidelines related to the recall process and they can be found at the Secretary of State’s website link: (https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/recalls/)

Once the “Notice of intent to petition” is signed and submitted to the Secretary of State (SOS) the clock starts on the process and everything from start to finish is time sensitive.

Steps are as follows:

1. Proponents sign Notice of Intent.
2. Notice of Intent is served upon the governor, who has 7 days to respond in writing.
3. Within 7 days of service, the Notice of Intent is posted in a local paper at proponent expense ($2,000)
4. Proof of posting and the notice is then submitted to the SOS.
5. After receiving the reply from the Governor, the proponents have 7 days to submit samples of the petition form to the SOS to be reviewed for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
6. SOS has 10 days to review the petition forms and notify the proponents whether or not the forms are in compliance. If not, they are returned with a list of corrections to be made.
7. Once the petitions are officially authorized by the secretary of state, the clock for circulating (gathering signatures) begins.
8. Proponents have 160 days to circulate the petition and gather the required number of signatures.
9. Petitions must be turned into each county Registrars office on a regular basis. The registrar officials report the petition count to the SOS. There are 4 reporting periods during the recall and the SOS posts the results on their website.
10. Finally the petition to recall is either certified and a special election is held or not.

Any American citizen may circulate the petition as long as they are over the age of 18.  They do NOT have to be citizens of California and they do NOT have to be registered to vote.

Only California citizens who are registered to vote and eligible to have voted for the official to be recalled can sign the petition.

Approximately 25% of all signatures are rejected by the SOS for various reasons.  To adjust for that, it will be necessary to gather 2 Million valid signatures in order to qualify the recall of Governor Newsom.

If the recall is successful, the Secretary of State will initiate a special election.  During the Special Election, voters will be given an opportunity to keep Gavin Newsom as Governor or reject him and vote for his replacement on the same ballot.  Almost anybody can run for governor during the special election.

There have only been two successful recalls, where a governor of a state was removed from office. In 1921, Governor Lynn Frazier of North Dakota and again in 2003 when Californians recalled the “Bengal Tiger” himself, Gray Davis. Over 130 people threw their hat in the ring during the Grey Davis recall, which was whittled down to a final 5 and eventually Arnold Schwarzenegger was voted in.  He served two terms.  Additionally, in 1988, a recall was approved against Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona. He was impeached and convicted before the matter made it to the ballot.

Although this is a monumental and daunting task, the recall of Gavin Newsom is not only something we can do, it is something we must do.  The recallGavin2020.com team (California Patriot Coalition) is a group of talented and skilled professionals who have all come together from throughout our great state to work with you, in order to give this recall the best possible chance at success.

As you know, gathering 2 million of anything is not an easy feat and we need your help.  We all have to come together, pool our resources and work swiftly to make this happen.  Once the clock starts we will have exactly 160 days start to finish.