Once this California recall is over

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

California Democrats have to change it. And they should have changed it once Jerry Brown became Governor in 2011.

#1 the petition should require more than just 12% of signatures of voters who voted in the last election (it needs to be around 25%), #2 if the recall is successful the Lt Gov should become Governor and finish the term or until special election is done to vote in another Governor……

the way it is done now a partisan minority can constantly try to recall a governor and be successful in getting a fringe candidate who becomes governor with less than 25% of the vote

[notinkansas]

1. For sure -

the way their recall is structured right now is absolutely bonkers.

[Zorro]

2. Those are great recommendations

[Sogo]

9. +100

.

[Budi]

3. When was this particular recall policy put in place?

Just wondering when & who was gov at the time. Who even created this bill/law, much less thought it was a good idea.
Maybe it was attached to a bigger bill to guarentee passage, or something like that.

It just defies reasonable thought in protecting the State from what is exactly happening today.

Just curious of it's origin.

[dsc]

8. It dates from the 1910's and was a progressive era reform

[Budi]

10. Thanks. 1910? Yes, it's time to revisit some of those outdated laws then.

Tho necessary at the time, much has changed.
There are some odd relics of laws that many States still have on the books, but not sure if they enforce them due to their antquity.

Leave it to the Republicans to sniff out that old law & use it to their advantage, tho.

[jimfields33]

16. We should too. Never understand why we don't.

[Nasruddin]

21. By Hiram Johnson

[link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_Johnson|

Republican - Progressive party

[Budi]

22. Thank you! It's a long stretch between 1910 & 2021

[David__77]

4. I agree with allowing current governor to be candidate in recall.

And implementing instant runoff voting. That would be reasonable a d avert a scenario in which a less desired individual wins governorship.

Not sure I like raising signature requirements.

[Mad_Machine76]

5. I'm not from California

but it's a farce and seems like it's mainly being used a tool to get Republicans elected to an office that they can't win otherwise.

And as an aside, nationally, whenever it is feasible, we need to re-examine Impeachment and how to make it work better than it does. It seems crazy easy to recall a California Governor and crazy impossible to remove a clearly unfit President.

[Initech]

6. Yeah things definitely need to change.

This current recall election is complete bullshit and nothing more than a pathetic attempt at a partisan power grab. It's also being run by people who you wouldn't trust to run a 7-11. It's definitely time for things to change and we can't let these far right cretins get a hold of my state right now. Too much is at stake.

[ffr]

7. If rolls were reversed, there wouldn't even be a recall possibility.

Get that stupid recall provision changed already!!!

[LiberalFighter]

11. At a minimum there should be signatures of 25% of the votes in the last election for Governor

from each county.

And as the OP indicated the Lt Gov should become the Governor if the recall is successful. No special election for Governor though. Lt Governor completes the term.

[beaglelover]

12. They should get rid of the whole recall thing entirely. No reason for it when we have

elections every 4 years.

[wryter2000]

14. IMHO

There needs to be a mechanism to get rid of a really horrid governor. We wouldn't want to have to wait 3.5 years to get rid of a Trump. However, the current process is a very destructive joke.

[beaglelover]

18. I agree, but it should be an impeachment process via the state legislature and not a recall

election. Similar to what we have on the federal level.

[wryter2000]

13. I'm wondering

If we can accomplish this through a ballot initiative. Those change the state constitution, no?

[Hekate]

15. Tell me how we can do that & I'll be glad to donate. Much legislation is being done by Propositions

Prop this and Prop that — shove money into a petition and get it on the ballot, then shove some more money at it and persuade fools to vote it in. That’s how we got term limits and a host of other ill-advised legislation. Direct democracy, or what I call a crock.

The state constitution needs revising. Both the Recall provision and the Proposition method have been abused past endurance.

[Nixie]

17. Agreed. This will be a constant maneuver. They

will not stop doing this.

[GoCubsGo]

19. Yep, it's one of the most asnine things I've seen in government.

If they're going to keep it, the signature requirement needs to be way more than 12%. More like 40%. And, I agree that the Lt. Gov. should finish the term, rather than holding another election--on the taxpayers' dime.

[Nasruddin]

20. Too right

Used twice in 20 years to attack perfectly reasonable Democratic governors ... the recall provision as-is is like leaving a loaded handgun in the nursery for the toddler to find.

There have been ideas circulating about how to reform this (beyond junking it completely).
This [link:https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215780247#post5|]
is one of them.
The provision that stands out to me is the distributive requirement - you have to have some reasonable percentage of the governor's own party in favor of the recall. Details need to be discussed (what if you have an "independent" governor?)

Not covered, but what I think should be done: the slate of candidates should be completely eliminated. We have a perfectly good LT governor, & to add that, the governor & the Lt are elected separately in this state (no slate).