DA Gascón recall effort: County officials to proceed with full review of signatures
LOS ANGELES - In a major push to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, election officials will have to verify the validity of all 715,833 signatures submitted to the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office.
According to officials, election workers conducted a random sampling of 35,793 signatures, or 5% of the overall total, and found that 27,983 of them were valid.
That number fell below the threshold of 31,179 valid signatures required to certify the petition outright, but was above the 25,510-signature threshold to prompt a verification of all signatures.
If the number of valid signatures in the random sample had been less than 25,510, the recall would have been immediately rejected.
At least 566,857 valid signatures are required to force a recall election. The full check of all signatures will be completed by Aug. 17, according to Logan's office.
George Gascón recall effort: Signatures to recall DA delivered to county clerk
Organizers of an effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón submitted roughly 717,000 petition signatures to election officials Wednesday in hopes of putting the fate of the county's top law enforcement officer in the hands of voters.
The earliest a recall election could be held would be at the same time as the Nov. 8 general election. If those conditions are not met, a special recall election would likely take place between late December 2022 and mid- January 2023, according to the Registrar's Office.
The campaign seeking to recall Gascón issued as statement calling the decision to review all signatures submitted was "another significant milestone in the effort to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón."
"As previously stated, we believe all 715,833 signatures that victims and volunteers worked tirelessly to collect should be counted," the statement said.
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"We remain confident the requisite 566,857 verified signatures to qualify the recall were submitted, and that once the recall qualifies, Gascon will be removed from office in a landslide."
Gascón has been under fire since taking office in December 2020, when he issued a series of directives critics blasted as being soft on crime.
The directives include a rule against seeking the death penalty, a ban on transferring juvenile defendants to adult court and prohibitions on filing sentencing-enhancements in most cases.
Gascón has repeatedly defended his policies, saying his stances were well-known during his campaign and his election signified public support of his agenda.
When they submitted the petition signatures to the county, recall organizers said residents "have spoken in a resounding way," noting the sheer number of people who have signed petitions and pointing to 37 cities in the county that have taken "no-confidence" votes on Gascón.