California's costly, confusing recall sparks an effort to rethink the rules
The rules governing recall elections in California will be subject to new scrutiny and possible changes, as two state legislators said Wednesday that the failed effort to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom from office was too costly and needlessly confusing.
Though election returns remained incomplete following Tuesday's contest, recall supporters found their effort millions of votes short with projections that Newsom easily won enough support to complete the final year of his current term. California lawmakers agreed to spend at least $276 million in the most recent state budget to cover the costs of the recall, but some elections officials have estimated the final tab will be closer to $300 million.
"That money could be spent on housing, on homelessness, on combating climate change, forest fires, early childhood education, you name it," said Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), chairman of the Assembly Elections Committee. "There's a lot of desire, and need, for reforming the recall process."
Voters were given the power to remove an elected official before the end of their term in office through an amendment to the California Constitution in 1911. In the years that followed, only one small change was made to the recall process. Although most recall efforts have failed to qualify for the ballot, similar concerns about the rules were raised in 2003, when then-Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, was ousted in favor of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/california-s-costly-confusing-recall-sparks-an-effort-to-rethink-the-rules/ar-AAOukF3
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