Our governor here in California, Gavin Newsom, once considered a rising superstar in the Democratic Party, is suddenly facing a serious effort to get him removed from power.
The petition “Rescue California” has gathered over 1.5 million signatures, enough to qualify to put his recall up for a vote; but the State of California is poised to go into overdrive to throw out signatures that do not match exactly.
The state of California is controlled by a whole bunch of Democrats. One-party rule. They are going to go through every single signature and throw out ones they don’t like.
California’s suddenly renewed interest in strict signature-matching when it comes to the Newsom recall petition contrasts with its comparatively low 0.6% ballot rejection rate in the 2020 election, a rejection rate notably lower than the March primary even though more than twice as many people voted.
Donald Trump, of course, would not be able to win California under any set of circumstances, but the lack of strict signature-matching in 2020 elections in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan, leading to lower ballot rejection rates, was a key complaint by Trump’s re-election campaign.
Ballot rejection rates across most swing states plummeted in the 2020 election, as compared to prior general elections in mid-term and presidential election years.
Georgia’s ballot rejection rate dropped from 6.42% in 2016 to 0.35% in 2020, according to Ballotpedia. Pennsylvania’s dropped from 1% to 0.03%, and Michigan’s from 0.5% to 0.1%.
The consistent enforcement of signature-matching standards would hypothetically have led to fewer votes for Joe Biden, since the mail-in and absentee ballots broke so dramatically in his direction.
Meanwhile, in California, reports indicate that signature-matching is going into overdrive in a bid to protect Newsom.
Newsom is quickly falling from grace, even among Democratic voters. He went back and forth over the legislature’s proposed vaccination rules and has struggled to convince teachers and administrators to reopen schools. California has also changed its vaccine distribution plan several times since vaccines became available, catching some providers unprepared, and currently ranks 39th among the 50 states in terms of percentage of doses administered. And his policy on lockdowns has pleased no one: Conservatives have accused him of strangling the economy with restrictions on businesses, while public-health experts have criticized his decision last month to lift regional stay-at-home orders as premature.
But President Joe Biden seems to be willing to back the California governor publicly. Biden has opposed the Newsom recall effort. No word on if he also opposes the state’s sudden push for strict signature-matching.