TOTAL RECALL: Newsom’s Election Challenge Moves Forward

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall election challenge moved forward Wednesday after the deadline to remove names from petitions statewide passed.

A press release from California Secretary of State Shirley Weber announced 43 signatures had been withdrawn statewide from petitions to recall the California governor.

The California Secretary of State on Wednesday confirmed that the petition to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom still had a sufficient number of signatures after a 30-day period where voters were allowed to withdraw their names https://t.co/HquNPvMyVO pic.twitter.com/hpyalZnNCL

— CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) June 24, 2021

California voters were given a 30-day period from April 26 to June 8 to request county officials remove their signatures from recall petitions, according to the press release. 1,719,900 verified signatures remain and meet the threshold for the recall election.

Weber sent a letter to the Director of the Department of Finance Keely Martin Bosler, stating the department “must estimate the costs of the recall election and submit the estimate to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, and the Chairperson of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee by August 5, 2021.” (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Will Officially Face Recall Election)

Newsom has called the recall election effort a “partisan, Republican recall” and said he would “fight it.” The Governor launched a counter “Stop the Republican Recall” campaign in March. The campaign said the recall movement against Newsom is “powered by a partisan, Republican coalition of national Republicans, anti-vaxxers, QAnon conspiracy theorists, anti-immigrant activists, and Trump supporters.”

“Instead of fighting COVID-19, Republicans are pulling a page from the Trump playbook and attacking Californians. In fact, a Republican recall will cost the state $100 million – money that could be used to help vaccinate our communities,” the website said.