LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office is ready to begin preparations for the recall election against the governor that the state has set for September.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Shirley Weber sent Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis the certification of the petition to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, with two available dates for the election — Aug. 31 and Sept. 14.
Later in the day, Kounalakis announced Sept. 14 had been selected for the California Gubernatorial Recall Election.
Now, prospective candidates have until July 16 to file their declaration of candidacy, nomination papers and statement of economic interests. Nearly 70 people so far have announced their intention to run.
Newsom is only the second governor, after Gray Davis in 2003, to face a recall election.
Weber reported to Kounalakis that of the 2,161,349 signatures submitted, 1,719,900 were determined to be valid.
The California Department of Finance reported the estimated state and county costs to administer the recall election total $276 million.
The Secretary of State’s Office reported that 3,249 signatures were received in support of the recall from Lake County. Of those, 2,422 were determined valid and 827 invalid.
Statewide, only 43 signatures were withdrawn from the recall petitions during the withdrawal period of April 26 to June 8. None were withdrawn in Lake County, the state reported.
Lake County Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez told Lake County News that her office will be receiving guidance from the Secretary of State’s Office on the recall election, “and I am sure they will address COVID-19.”
“All eligible voters will be mailed a vote-by-mail ballot, but my intention is to follow the same module as that of November and have all 22 polling places available on Election Day. We will continue the use of the ballot drop boxes and we will be adding an additional one in Supervisorial District 5,” Valadez said.
She said as soon as these locations are confirmed she will post a list on her department’s website.
Valadez said the Secretary of State’s Office will have election information on its website as well as a recall election FAQs section.
This isn’t Valadez’s first statewide recall election. She was also in the elections office staff when Davis was recalled in 2003.
The Secretary of State’s Office reported that, since 1913, there have been 179 recall attempts of state officials.
Of those efforts, 55 — the most for any office — focused on the governor.
Only 11 recall efforts have qualified for the ballot and, of those, only six led to the removal of the officials — one governor, three senators and two members of the Assembly.
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