Press Room: Press Release
LA Times: Numbers Add Up to Fall Recall Election
California county election officers have confirmed more than 1.1 million valid signatures on the petition for an election on whether to recall Davis
Sacramento—A Times survey shows county officials have verified more than enough signatures to force a vote on removing Gov. Davis from office.
By Michael Finnegan and Allison Hoffman
Times Staff Writers
7:42 PM PDT, July 22, 2003
California county election officers have confirmed more than 1.1 million valid signatures on the petition for an election on whether to recall Gov. Gray Davis — well above the threshold to qualify for the ballot, a Los Angeles Times survey found on Tuesday.
The state's 58 counties must report their latest tallies to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley by 5 p.m. Wednesday. Unless he rejects some signatures or a court intervenes, Shelley will have to certify the recall proposal as eligible for a statewide vote in September or October.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said Tuesday he would take no more than 24 hours to set the date for California's first statewide recall election.
Together, those actions could clear the way for candidates to begin jockeying for position as they embark on a short and unusual campaign, less than three months' long with control of the largest state in the nation at stake.
But in an interview, Bustamante called into question the widespread assumption that the election would occur in the same manner that local recalls have taken place in California for years. Specifically, he refused to say whether he would call for the election of a Davis successor on the same ballot as the recall question.
Potential candidates to succeed Davis — including U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from Vista, Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon Jr. and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger — have been expecting Bustamante to call a two-part election: a yes-or-no vote on ousting Davis, followed by a list of contenders to replace him.
The state constitution says that when a governor faces a recall vote, the lieutenant governor must set the date for it — and must also call the election of a successor "if appropriate."
Bustamante, though, said it was not his role to decide whether a Davis recall ballot would include a vote on potential successors.
"My job is to set the date," he said.
Asked who would decide whether a simultaneous vote on a Davis successor occurs, Bustamante invoked the obscure Commission on the Governorship.
"I think it would take the commission and the California Supreme Court to make that decision," he said.
State law empowers the commission to "petition the Supreme Court to determine any questions that arise relating to vacancies in and succession to the office of Governor.`
The commission chairman would be Senate President John Burton. The other members would be Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, the University of California president, the State Universities chancellor, and the governor's director of finance.
Burton, a San Francisco Democrat, said he was checking on his role as chairman, but he cast doubt on whether the panel was relevant to the recall. Burton said it was clear to him that the election of a Davis successor would be on the same ballot as the recall.
The law that sets up the commission is one of many under intense scrutiny by California officials and election lawyers.
"The prospect of the recall qualifying means that statutes that have been on the books for decades are going to be used for the very first time," said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
Fred Woocher, a Santa Monica lawyer who specializes in election law, questioned whether the Commission on the Governorship would play a role in the Davis recall attempt. The commission, he said, appeared designed to address confusing questions of vacancy, such as might occur if a governor were disabled but refused to relinquish authority. In this case, he said, no such confusion exists.
The constitutional discretion to call for an election of a successor "if appropriate" would most likely apply to appointed judges recalled by popular vote, but not to governors, Woocher said, adding that it was "far-fetched" to argue otherwise.
That race appeared all but inevitable in light of the latest signature counts.
The Times survey of county registrars found that even with some counties still not finished, they have validated at least 1,105,802 voter signatures on the petition for a Davis recall election. It takes 897,158 to qualify the recall for the ballot, and Shelley, a San Francisco Democrat, must automatically certify it is eligible for a vote if recall supporters submit 110 percent of the minimum — or 986,858.
Several potential candidates for governor have been preparing to decide within days whether to enter the race. One of them, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, stopped just short of ruling out a candidacy on Tuesday.
"The odds are I won't run," he said in an interview.
Advisers to other candidates have braced for the possibility that Bustamante would give them as little as one day to decide whether to enter the race.
But Bustamante, despite the doubts he raised on whether the ballot would include a list of candidates to succeed Davis, said he believed that one day "would probably be too short a time."
Under guidelines set by the constitution, Bustamante would have to call the election 60 to 80 days after Shelley certified that it qualified for the ballot. Candidates would have to enter the race at least 59 days before the election.
That quick timeline is highly unusual and has elections' officials concerned about their ability to pull the contest off without problems.
The usual time to prepare for a statewide election is 131 days, more than twice the possible timeframe for a special recall election.
Times staff writers Virginia Ellis and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this article.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
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# # #
LA Times: Numbers Add Up to Fall Recall Election
California county election officers have confirmed more than 1.1 million valid signatures on the petition for an election on whether to recall Davis
Sacramento—A Times survey shows county officials have verified more than enough signatures to force a vote on removing Gov. Davis from office.
By Michael Finnegan and Allison Hoffman
Times Staff Writers
7:42 PM PDT, July 22, 2003
California county election officers have confirmed more than 1.1 million valid signatures on the petition for an election on whether to recall Gov. Gray Davis — well above the threshold to qualify for the ballot, a Los Angeles Times survey found on Tuesday.
The state's 58 counties must report their latest tallies to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley by 5 p.m. Wednesday. Unless he rejects some signatures or a court intervenes, Shelley will have to certify the recall proposal as eligible for a statewide vote in September or October.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante said Tuesday he would take no more than 24 hours to set the date for California's first statewide recall election.
Together, those actions could clear the way for candidates to begin jockeying for position as they embark on a short and unusual campaign, less than three months' long with control of the largest state in the nation at stake.
But in an interview, Bustamante called into question the widespread assumption that the election would occur in the same manner that local recalls have taken place in California for years. Specifically, he refused to say whether he would call for the election of a Davis successor on the same ballot as the recall question.
Potential candidates to succeed Davis — including U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from Vista, Los Angeles businessman Bill Simon Jr. and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger — have been expecting Bustamante to call a two-part election: a yes-or-no vote on ousting Davis, followed by a list of contenders to replace him.
The state constitution says that when a governor faces a recall vote, the lieutenant governor must set the date for it — and must also call the election of a successor "if appropriate."
Bustamante, though, said it was not his role to decide whether a Davis recall ballot would include a vote on potential successors.
"My job is to set the date," he said.
Asked who would decide whether a simultaneous vote on a Davis successor occurs, Bustamante invoked the obscure Commission on the Governorship.
"I think it would take the commission and the California Supreme Court to make that decision," he said.
State law empowers the commission to "petition the Supreme Court to determine any questions that arise relating to vacancies in and succession to the office of Governor.`
The commission chairman would be Senate President John Burton. The other members would be Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, the University of California president, the State Universities chancellor, and the governor's director of finance.
Burton, a San Francisco Democrat, said he was checking on his role as chairman, but he cast doubt on whether the panel was relevant to the recall. Burton said it was clear to him that the election of a Davis successor would be on the same ballot as the recall.
The law that sets up the commission is one of many under intense scrutiny by California officials and election lawyers.
"The prospect of the recall qualifying means that statutes that have been on the books for decades are going to be used for the very first time," said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
Fred Woocher, a Santa Monica lawyer who specializes in election law, questioned whether the Commission on the Governorship would play a role in the Davis recall attempt. The commission, he said, appeared designed to address confusing questions of vacancy, such as might occur if a governor were disabled but refused to relinquish authority. In this case, he said, no such confusion exists.
The constitutional discretion to call for an election of a successor "if appropriate" would most likely apply to appointed judges recalled by popular vote, but not to governors, Woocher said, adding that it was "far-fetched" to argue otherwise.
That race appeared all but inevitable in light of the latest signature counts.
The Times survey of county registrars found that even with some counties still not finished, they have validated at least 1,105,802 voter signatures on the petition for a Davis recall election. It takes 897,158 to qualify the recall for the ballot, and Shelley, a San Francisco Democrat, must automatically certify it is eligible for a vote if recall supporters submit 110 percent of the minimum — or 986,858.
Several potential candidates for governor have been preparing to decide within days whether to enter the race. One of them, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, stopped just short of ruling out a candidacy on Tuesday.
"The odds are I won't run," he said in an interview.
Advisers to other candidates have braced for the possibility that Bustamante would give them as little as one day to decide whether to enter the race.
But Bustamante, despite the doubts he raised on whether the ballot would include a list of candidates to succeed Davis, said he believed that one day "would probably be too short a time."
Under guidelines set by the constitution, Bustamante would have to call the election 60 to 80 days after Shelley certified that it qualified for the ballot. Candidates would have to enter the race at least 59 days before the election.
That quick timeline is highly unusual and has elections' officials concerned about their ability to pull the contest off without problems.
The usual time to prepare for a statewide election is 131 days, more than twice the possible timeframe for a special recall election.
Times staff writers Virginia Ellis and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this article.
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
Click here for article licensing and reprint options
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