Effort to recall CA Gov. Newsom surpasses goal of 2 million signatures

The organizers behind the effort to recall California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday night that they had surpassed their goal of gathering 2-million signatures days ahead of the March 17 deadline.

According to Ashley Zavala of KRON, organizers claimed the count stood at 2,060,000 signatures, which is enough to offset the likely inevitable 25 percent rejection rate of invalid signatures. Zavala tweeted that the group announced that 1,871,573 signatures had already been pre verified "internally through an outside third party vendor."

At a press conference Sunday, organizers announced they had gathered 1,927,000 signatures in support of the recall, more than a week ahead of the March 17 deadline. Recall organizers said they planned to try to reach 2 million before that date.

Elections officials still need to verify the signatures are valid and come from registered California voters before the special election can be scheduled.

RecallGavin2020 co-proponent Mike Netter said that approximately 1.6 million of the signatures were gathered by volunteers.

The multi million dollar recall effort against the Governor began as a response to Newsom’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and gained momentum following the meal at the French Laundry and after Newsom ordered a second lockdown in response to a surge in COVID cases. Newsom's orders closed businesses around the Golden State but left an exemption for Hollywood production to continue. Last month, Newsom was caught once again inside of a restaurant that was ordered closed under his onerous lockdown restrictions.