- Voters are asked two questions on their ballot paper: Should Governor Gavin Newsom be removed from office? If more than 50% of voters say yes, the next question will be decisive: who should replace him?
- The first elections in the state close at 8 p.m. PDT and a flurry of postal ballot and early personal ballot results is expected.
- Only twice in US history has a governor been removed from office; 1921 in North Dakota; and 2003 in California.
LOS ANGELES – Tuesday is Decision Day in California and voters from the most populous state in the country will have a chance to decide whether to keep Governor Gavin Newsom or call him back.
It’s been a winding road, but polls showed the Democrat will likely keep his job running a state known nationwide as a liberal trendsetter.
Regardless of the outcome, the choice itself is both rare and historic. A Newsom recall would potentially cause shock waves across the country and across the Democratic Party.
Only twice in US history has a governor been removed from office; 1921 in North Dakota; and in California in 2003 when Gray Davis was removed and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Everything you need to know:California’s Gavin Newsom recall election is Tuesday. Here’s what’s at stake.
On the eve of the election, Newsom received a boost from President Joe Biden when the commander in chief told voters at a campaign rally that “the nation’s eyes are on California”. Biden warned Monday in Long Beach, California that the removal of the first-term governor would have ramifications that would reverberate across the nation and risk a return to former President Donald Trump’s “dark, destructive, divisive policies”.
Meanwhile, Republican frontrunner conservative radio host Larry Elder, who Biden calls a “Trump clone,” predicted victory.
“Make sure your friends are voting, voting, voting and trying to get 10 more friends to vote and make every call, make every call, knock on every door, we will win this thing if we get the vote carry out. “Elder said this week.
This is how the callback works in California
Voters are asked two questions on their ballot paper: Should Newsom be recalled? If more than 50% of voters say yes, the next question will be decisive: who should replace him?
Forty-six candidates will appear on the ballot. Elder constantly leads polls among those vying to replace Newsom. He will be stationed Tuesday in Costa Mesa, California, about 40 miles south of Los Angeles, with supporters.
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Other prominent Republican contestants include Caitlyn Jenner, a former Olympic gold medalist who starred on the reality series “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”; former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer; California MP Kevin Kiley; and John Cox, a businessman who was easily defeated by Newsom in the 2018 gubernatorial election.
The only leading Democratic candidate to emerge from the race is Kevin Paffrath, a real estate agent and YouTube personality.
When should we expect the final results?
The first elections in the state close at 8 p.m. PDT and a flurry of postal ballot and early personal ballot results is expected. About 37% of the roughly 22 million ballots sent to California voters were, according to an analysis by Political Data Inc.
Democrats had a larger percentage of those votes than Republicans, which means early results could show good signs for Newsom. But that might not last and the number of voters who participate on Tuesday will likely be decisive in deciding the race.
California has historically taken weeks to count all votes in national elections. In 2020, when nearly 18 million people cast their vote, a third of the votes in the presidential election were counted after election night. Two years earlier, more than 40% had been counted after election day.
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Ballot papers by post can arrive up to a week after Tuesday and can still be counted, provided they are postmarked by September 14th. This process can take days or weeks. Postal ballot papers are usually counted in the order in which they are received, so the last ballot papers counted are usually the last to arrive.
In 2020, Republicans were much less likely than Democrats to vote by postal vote, in part because Trump repeatedly claimed that postal voting was unsafe and prone to fraud.
If this trend continues, polling night recall results could fluctuate depending on the types of votes reported – absentee ballot or face-to-face.
Most California voters cast their ballots in the mail, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic as many voters were reluctant to enter crowded polling stations on election day. About 87% of California’s voters put their ballots in the mail in last year’s presidential election.
All 22 million registered voters received a postal ballot for the election on Tuesday.
Postal ballot papers take longer to process than voting in person, as electoral officials must remove the ballot papers from envelopes, verify the voter’s registration, and ensure that the voter’s signature on the envelope matches the one on file. Then the votes can be counted.
When voting in person, officials at the polling station take security measures so that the votes can be counted shortly after the polling stations close.
But there have been unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and at least one Republican candidate in the race has refused to say whether he will accept the results of the race.
In the past few days, Elder has suggested that unspecified “gimmicks” may skew the results of the recall election, reflecting Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud in his 2020 race with Biden. He refused several times to say in various interviews that he would accept the results of the race.
There is no verified evidence of widespread fraud.
The Elder Campaign website is linked to a Stop CA Fraud website where people can sign a petition calling for a special session of the legislature to look into the “twisted results” long before any results are announced .
Newsom said he would accept the election results and urged Elder and others to do the same. “As an American, I am ashamed. I am disgusted with it. Stop. Grow up. These people are literally destroying our democracy and trust in our institutions, ”he said.
When asked to provide evidence of suspicious election activity, Elder Spokeswoman Ying Ma said the campaign wanted “every correct vote to be counted” and “whatever gimmicks there are will not get in the way of becoming the next governor.”
What do the voters say?
Newsom’s recall campaign has largely focused on its COVID-19 guidelines. At the beginning of the pandemic, he was applauded for being the first to close a state over the virus.
Months later, California became the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, despite the governor applying some of the strictest mandates in the country. Critics said he was clumsy, closed shops and kept children out of classrooms longer than necessary. Newsom said his actions saved lives.
“I am angry. It should be a freedom of choice. What is it? A dictatorship? ”Asked Janet Webb, a 69-year-old Lafayette, Calif. Resident who voted for Elder.
She said disputes over Newsom’s handling of the pandemic had divided her family and friends and could lead them to leave the state.
“I can’t live like this here if they force everyone to get a vaccine,” said Webb.
Briana Mendoza, 30, said the last thing California needed is more turmoil. She voted to keep Newsom.
“We are in the middle of a pandemic. Why should we call back the governor who was really trying to contain the spread of the virus? ”Said the San Diego social worker.
Mendoza doesn’t believe Newsom took the recall by attending a birthday party at The French Laundry, an upscale restaurant in the Napa Valley, last fall, in violation of its own government’s coronavirus rules. Instead, she sees the attempt to oust him as a backlash by a small minority of Republicans in a decidedly democratic state.
“We don’t want Elder in office,” she said. “That’s ridiculous. We just got Trump out. We don’t want a Trump puppet.”
Contribution: The Associated Press
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