Our View: Don’t let California recall blow up U.S. experiment
If states are laboratories of democracy, California has been a leading experimenter with progressive leadership on everything from marijuana legalization to climate change.
But what happens Tuesday could demolish the Golden State’s reputation. It’s conceivable that a new governor will be elected with only a fraction of the votes that favor current Gov. Gavin Newsom. That’s an experiment in democracy gone badly awry.
How is it possible?
Among this blue state’s progressive bona fides is an infatuation with something called direct democracy, the right of voters to change what they don’t like through referendums, ballot initiative and recall votes. The latter runs rampant across California these days with some 50 recall campaigns, including Newsom’s, at all levels of government.
Two questions on the ballot
Since 1960, every California governor has been subject to at least one recall effort, although Newsom’s recall is only the second to garner enough verified signatures to warrant a vote.
What’s particularly strange about California’s recall process is that voters are simply asked two questions: Do you want to recall Newsom? If so, who should replace him?
If 50% or higher say “no” to the first question, Newsom keeps his job. Polls suggest there’s a fair chance that will happen; the governor has an approval rating of 57%.
But this is an off-year, off-cycle special vote. Though ballots have been mailed to all active registered voters, there’s no telling what participation will look like.
If Newsom fails to garner 50%, the next governor will be picked from a passel of 46 candidates who have qualified as potential alternatives.
As with so many California political contests, these folks run the gamut from ordinary to odd and include a secessionist, the owner of a combat supply store, billboard diva Angelyne and a self-styled, anti-politician who campaigns with a 1,000-pound Kodiac bear.
The leading contender is Republican and conservative talk-show host Larry Elder, who polling shows has about 27.6% support among the 46 candidates to replace the California governor.
If no more than 49% of ballots cast are against recalling Newsom, and Elder wins among the other candidates with a plurality, he effectively defeats the governor.
That’s no way to run a democracy, and it would be an outcome unfair to millions of, if not most, Californians.
Two out of three Californians already agree changes in this process are in order. And there are any number of commonsense reforms.
Winners and losers
Like most of the 19 states where governors can be recalled, California could allow the politician being replaced to be among the pool of alternatives; or, again like those other states, California could raise the threshold for the number of petition signatures required to hold a recall election to 25% or 30% of registered voters, something more befitting such a dramatic change in office.
Another idea would be to allow the lieutenant governor to serve after a successful recall.
A good first step recommended by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California would be the appointment of a bipartisan commission to arrive at specific reform proposals that voters could consider on the November 2022 election ballot.
In an era of hyperpartisanship, where close elections too often are flashpoints for dissent and even violence, the last thing needed is an outlier political process where the American winner, in any other universe, would be the loser.