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The Beholden State: Weighing When Democracy Matters in the Golden State

Election Law Society · November 21, 2022 ·

By Ram Reddy

California—to many—is the shining beacon of what it means to be a progressive, Blue State. Just as Texan politicians and voters tend to take pride in their depiction in popular media as a deep Red State, Californian politicians are beholden to putting up a persona of deep Blue, going so far as to run ads about their values in rival red states. 

California has led the charge in introducing and/or passing sweeping new bills about voter registration and vote by mail laws, in an effort to increase turnout in the state that has abysmally low turnout. Cynics saw this as a tactic by state Democrats to increase minority turnout due to the threat some progressive politicians have faced in backlash to crime waves. But whatever the intention, the state is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to making democracy more accessible and accountable to citizens…except in the area of recalls. 

Approaches to popular sovereignty and democracy in California seem to come down to party lines because, though recalls remain broadly popular across party lines, the targets for recalls tend to be Democrats. Recalls empower minority parties in a state where Democrats hold veto proof supermajorities at almost every level. Calls for making reforming recalls and perhaps making them less effective are making the rounds as bills in Sacramento. The Golden State enjoys one of the lowest thresholds for recalls of all western states, and its voters have successfully recalled a governor and various state officials—most recently DA Chesa Boudin. As a result, many Democratic policy makers in Sacramento are calling for a fleet of sweeping new reforms from raising the signature threshold, to constitutional amendments to mandate a cause for recall, or eliminate the recall altogether. While most of these measures are not groundbreaking in the state’s political discourse, there are newer and more controversial measures including preventing local offices where the holder is removed from being filled until the next election and forcing state wide offices subject to recall to remain vacant until the next election or a special election where the recalled officer would still be treated as an incumbent. Opponents see these attempts at leaving the offices empty as efforts to further solidify Democratic Party control over the state, as the supermajority with a vacant governor’s seat merely means what few bills would be vetoed now cannot be vetoed. 

Proponents of the recall reform measures point to the blowout victories of DA George Gaston and Gavin Newsom and have tried to paint reform as popular amongst the state’s Democratic majority. While generic questions about recall reform tend to poll around 50%, specific reforms fail to garner majority support even amongst Democrats in most polls aside from one conducted by UC Berkeley. 

Republicans have weaponized these efforts as attempts by state Democrats to further cement control over opposition, and they’re using voters’ complaints over rising crime and financial woes to do so. They point to what they claim are the state’s lax policy towards verification of absentee ballots and registration drives and the efforts to nitpick and toss out recall signatures to keep measures from the ballot—though opponents of these recall efforts point to the poorly run recall campaigns as the reason for these failures. 

The battle over recalls will continue to loom in the Golden State and efforts to change the process shall grow. Even though statewide recalls of officials like Gov. Newsom might have failed, more and more local offices are being targeted,perhaps galvanized by the successful recalls of Chesa Boudin and a trio of school board officials in San Francisco. Los Angeles DA George Gascon is likely to face a third recall in the coming year. For better or for worse recalls will continue to be in the spotlight in California, as will the juxtaposition of efforts by state legislators and politicians to promote democracy while cutting down on threats to their incumbency. 

All That Glitters Isn’t Gold in the Golden State: The Current State of California Recall Elections

Election Law Society · October 17, 2022 ·

By Caleb McClain

As a native of the Los Angeles area, one of the most enduring local news items of late from  home has been the repeated attempts to mount a campaign to oust freshly elected District Attorney George Gascón. After the recent failure to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom, this LA County native can only stop and wonder what is this whole recall business our state has found itself so marked by.

Answering this question requires us to step back a bit and first ask: just what is a recall?  A recall is simply put a voter-led effort to remove an elected official before their term of office expires. Currently nineteen states and DC allow for a recall of elected officials. In California, a recall begins by circulating a notice to recall a specific official. Then a recall petition is circulated in the required jurisdiction to gain the required number of signatures, which varies based on whether it is a local or state elected official. If the required number is gathered, an election is held to decide if the official will be recalled and, if so, who will replace them. Some states, such as Alaska, have specific requirements to initiate a recall but California is not among them.

Recall elections emerged in California in 1913 as part of then-Governor Hiram Johnson’s progressive era reforms that also introduced ballot initiatives and referendums to the state’s election framework as a way to take power back from corrupt special interests. Since 1913 there have been over 179 recall attempts of state officials, the majority of which have been from the 1980’s to the present mostly concern the governor or state assembly members. Of the attempts, only eleven have actually qualified for the ballot with only six being successful. The most famous of these was the 2003 recall of Democratic governor Grey Davis after a series of  policy and state financial crisis’s and his replacement by “The Governator” himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Critics of California’s recall system have noted several major problems with the process. The first of these is the incredibly low bar for signatures to trigger a recall election. Currently a recall only needs to gather 12% of the vote to proceed for a statewide office like the governor. That breaks down to around 1.5 million votes. This  sounds impressive, until you consider that California has a population of approximately 39 million people-of which almost 25 million are eligible to vote and over 22 million are fully registered. As Secretary of State Shirley Webber puts it “… [i]s it reasonable to have such a low bar for recall . . . [t]here’s always 10 to 15% who do not like somebody.”

The second is that recalls are an expensive process. The recall of Governor Newsom cost the state $200 million in taxpayer money which, while fortunately underbudget, is still a significant unexpected expense even for a state a large budget surplus.

Third, there is also concern that recalls function less as a voter accountability tool than a vehicle for partisan attacks. The frequency of recall attempts can be neatly mapped onto the growth of partisanship in California, and with the power of the internet and social media it is easier than ever for dissatisfied individuals to find each other and organize. This is further supported by the very partisan attitudes toward reforming the recall process.

Fourth is the charge that because of the way the recall process is, in practice, it is deeply undemocratic. One quirk of California’s recall process is that two questions are asked on the ballot. The first is whether if the official in question should be recalled, and the second is if so, who should replace them. The fear on the part of many is that an official could be recalled by the majority of voters but their successor could win without a majority of the vote. All they would require is more votes than their rivals.

Finally, there is the question about how useful a recall is, even when successful. Consider the first ever recall governor, North Dakota Governor Lynn Frazier, back in 1921. Governor Frazier’s recall had more to do with internal partisan squabbles than any alleged unfitness or corruption; he was even elected to a US Senate seat the next year and served there for three terms. Nor is California’s historic recall of Grey Davis an unqualified success. While it is true that Davis was historically unpopular when voters went to the polls in 2003, much of that was due to the Enron energy crisis which was largely out of his control. Ultimately his replacement, “The Governator,“ left office with the same approval rating as Davis. This was due in no small part to the aftereffects of the 2008 global recession, something also out of his control.

Despite these flaws, recalls do still remain popular amongst the voting public, with over 86% percent of CA voters believing it is a good thing to have and other states seeing comparable levels of support. That said, over 66% of voter agree that some level of change to the recall process is needed. Several California political figures have come together proposing various changes, including members of the state assembly, the Secretary of State Shirley Webber, and even recalled governor Grey Davis. Among the various proposals for reform are:  (1) increasing the number of signatures needed to trigger a statewide, (2) allow an official  being recalled to run as a replacement, (3) require a certain bipartisan threshold for signatures, and (4) allowing the lieutenant governor to serve if a recall succeeds until a new election can be held. Ultimately, any change to the recall process would require changing the California Constitution and be subject to the approval of the voters who are fond of the power given to them.

Shifting Deadlines: How Changes in the Statutory Redistricting Deadlines Will Impact California’s Elections and Voters (Part 2 of 2)

Election Law Society · February 14, 2022 ·

By: Elizabeth Profaci

As discussed in part one of this two-part series, California passed the VOTERS First Act (“the Act”) in 2008, and ever since, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (“the Commission”) has drawn the state’s legislative and congressional districts. As part of the redistricting process, the Act imposes deadlines on the Commission, in part to ensure the public has enough time to participate in the redistricting process. The COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in the release of census data and so, in Legislature v. Padilla, the California Supreme Court adjusted the deadlines imposed by the Act to allow the deadlines to change based on federal delay. However, in Legislature v. Weber, the California Supreme Court ordered the Commission to release the preliminary maps no later than November 15, 2021, and to approve and certify the final maps by December 27, 2021.

This change to the deadlines coincided with the holidays and there were concerns that this will affect the public’s ability to meaningfully comment on the proposed maps. As early as May 2021, community-based organizations and civil rights groups submitted comments to the Commission urging later deadlines. The Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) Redistricting Alliance, which was created to “empower low-income Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) residents to participate in the 2021 state and local redistricting processes and empower community residents to participate,” explained that community groups will hold workshops and meetings so that they can meaningfully contribute to the redistricting process. The IVE urged the Commission to move the deadlines outside the holiday period, otherwise, communities will not be able to contribute to and participate in the redistricting process in the same way they would in a normal year.

[Read more…] about Shifting Deadlines: How Changes in the Statutory Redistricting Deadlines Will Impact California’s Elections and Voters (Part 2 of 2)

Shifting Deadlines: How Changes in the Statutory Redistricting Deadlines Will Impact California’s Elections and Voters (Part 1 of 2)

Election Law Society · December 13, 2021 ·

By: Elizabeth Profaci

After California passed the Voters FIRST Act (“the Act”) in 2008, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (“the Commission”) has drawn the state’s legislative and congressional districts. Among other provisions pertaining to the work of the Commission, the Act provides deadlines for the release of draft maps for public comment, approval, and certification the Commission must follow. The Act requires the Commission to release at least one set of draft maps by July 1 of the year following the census and the California Constitution requires that final maps must be approved and certified to the Secretary of State by August 15 of that same year.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused delays with the release of census data, which makes complying with these statutory and constitutional deadlines impossible. Recognizing this difficulty, the Legislature of the State of California filed an emergency petition requesting a writ of mandate to adjust the deadlines. In Legislature v. Padilla, the California Supreme Court granted the Legislature’s motion and adjusted the deadlines to require the Commission to release the first map drafts for public comment by November 1, 2021 and to approve and certify the final maps by December 15, 2021. Additionally, the court concluded that “relevant state deadlines should be shifted accordingly” in the event of “further federal delay.” In light of the court’s holding, the Legislature adopted SB 594 in September 2021, which would codify the holding in Padilla.

[Read more…] about Shifting Deadlines: How Changes in the Statutory Redistricting Deadlines Will Impact California’s Elections and Voters (Part 1 of 2)

California Officials Clash With Republican Party Over Unauthorized Ballot Drop Boxes

vebrankovic · December 9, 2020 ·

By Sam Petto

In early October, a controversy was brewing in California as officials launched legal threats against the California Republican Party for its use of “unauthorized” ballot drop boxes. Finding the California Republican Party set up over 100 unauthorized, non-official drop boxes in the state, California officials sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that GOP officials hand over ballots, disclose the locations of its unauthorized boxes, and cease current ballot collection practices to prevent voter confusion.

In their letter, officials claimed only county officials had the authority to determine the number, location, and hours of availability for drop boxes, and that state law established rules requiring designated ballot retrievers to collect and return ballots. Additionally, the state claimed that the GOP’s boxes violated laws requiring a third-party ballot collector to have their name, signature, and relationship to the voter listed on the ballot pursuant to Elections Code Section 3011(a).Californians have to know who they are signing their ballot over to if they are not depositing it into an official drop box. Here, state officials argued they did not know.

[Read more…] about California Officials Clash With Republican Party Over Unauthorized Ballot Drop Boxes

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