Gascón recall effort fails; almost 200K signatures were rejected
LOS ANGELES - An effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón was rejected Monday, with the county clerk's office announcing that organizers submitted only 520,050 valid petition signatures, short of the required amount.
Organizers of the recall effort had submitted over 715,000 signatures, but over 195,000 of those signatures were found to be invalid, according to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean C. Logan.
At least 566,857 valid signatures are required to force a recall election.
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"Therefore, the petition has failed to meet the sufficiency requirements and no further action shall be taken on the petition," a statement from the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's office reads.
According to county officials, a breakdown of the invalid signatures included:
- Not Registered: 88,464
- Max Number of Times Signed (Duplicate): 43,593
- Different Address: 32,187
- Mismatch Signature: 9,490
- Canceled: 7,344
- Out of County Address: 5,374
- Other: 9,331
Proponents of the recall petition are allowed to examine the petition signatures if desired but would need to do so within 21 days after the certification of insufficiency of the petition.
In a statement Monday, Gascón said that he's "Grateful to move forward from this attempted political power grab. Rest assured LA County, the work hasn’t stopped. My primary focus has been [and] will always be keeping us safe [and] creating a more equitable justice system for all. I remain strongly committed to that work [and] to you."
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.
CNS contributed to this report.