By TREVIN BRANDT
Staff Writer
The Gavin Newsom Recall campaign, after nearly a year of collecting signatures, has gained enough verified signatures to recall the Governor of California. With 1.6 million signatures, the effort has gained 100,000 more than the 1.5 required signatures. This mostly republican and centrist campaign began in the wake of Governor Newsom’s heavy response to covid-19. Many businesses were forced to close or adhere to the strict guidelines that limited local buisness’s profits. The campaign was criticized early on as never being possible, but this fall, California citizens will be able to vote for a new governor.
The recall ballot will have 2 questions. 1: Do you wish to recall the governor, Yes or No? If you answer no, you do not need to answer the next question. If you answer yes, you will then get to vote for who replaces the governor. A few republican candidates, including Caitlyn Jenner have confirmed their intent to run in the election. It is expected that there will be many names on the ballot from different parties. If Californians vote to not recall Gavin Newsom, he will remain governor until his term is up in 2022. If they vote to recall him, whoever gets the most votes on the recall ballot will be the Governor of California for the remainder of Newsom’s term.
Gavin Newsom has brushed the recall off as a “Republican recall,” and is confident that he will not be recalled from his office. In fact, only 4 in 10 voters have said they will vote to recall him according to a survey ran by the Public Policy Institute of California. Recently, Newsom has been loosening up on his Covid-19 guidelines as vaccinations continue to be distributed. He is expected to open the economy in full force on June 15th which would effectively get rid of the Covid-19 color tier county system introduced in August. The only guidelines for covid would be the mask mandate and social distancing requirements. This would most likely increase Newsom’s approval rate amongst those who want to recall him.
Sources: https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/26/politics/newsom-recall-signatures-california-governor/index.html
https://www.kcra.com/article/newsom-recall-makes-ballot-california-recall-process-election-governor-gop-jenner/36257315