Election officials concerned about recall timeline

Earlier this week, the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO) sent a letter to Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis expressing concern over when the recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom will take place.

Sutter County ClerkRecorder Donna Johnston is the president of CACEO. Reports of the state holding the election in August and the decision by the Legislature to waive the 30-day period to review election costs led CACEO to send the letter.

California State Senate President pro Tempore

Toni Atkins (D-san Diego) and California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-lakewood) announced this week that $215 million would be included in the state’s budget bill to cover the cost of counties to put on the recall election.

The decision shortens the timeline for the election by 30 days, according to Johnston. CACEO’S letter included 18

aspects of putting on the election that would be affected by a shortened timeline. Johnston said she’s been in meetings and on calls with the lieutenant governor’s office and said state officials are understanding the issue better since the letter was sent. The date of the election has not been set yet and could be as early as Aug. 24, according to Johnston.

“That’s the big question right now,” Johnston said.

She said it would be “difficult, if not impossible,” to hold the election on August 24 as Sutter County’s supplier of custom paper for ballots and envelopes has said it won’t be able to provide the materials in time to get ballots prepared and sent out to voters.

Johnston’s preference would be to hold the recall election on the first Tuesday of November but said she’s not confident that will happen. The hope is that it will be scheduled around the end of September or in October, Johnston said.

Another challenge for election officials is the possibility that the recall election will be changed from a special election to a regular election if a recently introduced bill is passed.

Johnston said if the bill passes, counties would have to set up more polling places and inperson voters would have to go to specific locations to vote in their precinct.

CACEO is working on a letter in opposition to the bill (AB/ SB 152), according to Johnston. Sutter County made an initial request for $296,000 to put on the recall election but changed that to $345,000 in anticipation of the election being changed to a regular election. Yuba County reported a budget request of around $303,000, Johnston said.

The Sutter County Election office is working on verifying what will be printed on envelopes to send to the printer and is calling possible polling locations regarding availability. The difficulty is officials are asking if locations have availability every Tuesday from Aug. 24 to Nov. 2, according to Johnston.

“So, it’s a big ask for entities,” Johnston said.

With the possibility of more polling places on the table, Johnston is asking that anyone interested in being a poll worker reach out to help local officials staff locations.

“We’ll be, among other things, scrambling to get staffing,” Johnston said.