2021 California gubernatorial recall election

2021 California gubernatorial recall election

← 2018 September 14, 2021[1][2] 2022 →
Turnout	58.45% (4.83 pp)
Vote on recall
Shall Gavin Newsom be recalled (removed) from the office of Governor?
Results
Choice Votes % Yes 4,894,473 38.12% No 7,944,092 61.88% Valid votes 12,838,565 99.58% Invalid or blank votes 54,013 0.42% Total votes 12,892,578 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 22,057,154 58.45%
County results Congressional district results No:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Yes:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%
Replacement candidates If Newsom is recalled, who should replace him as governor? Turnout 58.45%   Candidate Larry Elder Kevin Paffrath Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 3,563,867 706,778 Percentage 48.4% 9.6%   Candidate Kevin Faulconer Brandon Ross Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 590,346 392,029 Percentage 8.0% 5.3% County results Congressional district results Elder:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70% Paffrath:      20–30%

The 2021 California gubernatorial recall election was a special recall election that started in August 2021 and ended on September 14, 2021, when California voters chose not to recall incumbent Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, elected for the term January 2019 to January 2023. Many hopefuls took on the incumbent, to become the replacement Governor.

Had the recall been successful, the replacement candidate with the most votes on the second part of the ballot would have assumed the office. The election followed the same format used in the November 2020 general election: in August, county election offices sent an official ballot to the mailing address of every registered voter, giving them the option to vote by mail on or before election day, or, when polling places opened statewide, to vote in-person.^[3][4] The recall petition was filed in February 2020 and signatures were collected from June 2020 to March 2021, with the signature drive gaining critical momentum in late 2020 regarding Newsom's personal behavior and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. The front runner Larry Elder chose to run in the 2024 Republican Party presidential primaries.

Voters' ability to recall an elected official in California is the result of Progressive Era democratic reforms intended to reduce corruption, enacted alongside the introduction of the ballot initiative and women's suffrage in 1911. Following a petition drive collecting signatures amounting to at least 12 percent of voters in the previous election for the political office in question, a special election is held. The election was the fourth gubernatorial recall election in American history and the second in state history after the 2003 recall election, which resulted in the successful recall of Governor Gray Davis, who was replaced with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The ballot asked voters two separate questions: whether to recall Newsom as governor, and which candidate should replace Newsom as governor if he were recalled. All voters could answer the second question regardless of their vote (if any) on the first. Allies of Newsom were successful in dissuading any high-profile Democrats from entering the field of candidates seeking to replace Newsom if he was recalled. His campaign encouraged voters to vote "no" on the first question (whether to recall Newsom) while abstaining from voting on the second question (who should replace Newsom if he were recalled). Largely as consequence of this, while 12,838,565 voters answered the first question, only 7,361,568 voters answered the second.

Due to the wide margin of the results, most major news outlets projected the race for Newsom within an hour of polls closing; later that night, Larry Elder, the frontrunner replacement candidate, conceded defeat.^[5] Official certification of the results occurred on October 22, 2021.