CALIFORNIA, USA — Highlights from the 4th California Gubernatorial recall election debate
Why was this debate different from all other debates? Well, a democrat joined.
No, it was not California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Democrat Youtube influencer Kevin Paffrath is trying to kick Newsom out of office, but he came ready to verbally fight everyone else on stage, too. He said multiple times throughout the debate that he is the only candidate with actual plans to get things done, and flaunted the polls that show he is a leading candidate.
There were plenty of fireworks during the debate...
Watch the vote: This is what happens to California ballots
Get ready to go behind-the-scenes in a California elections office to see how they count your vote.
The Sacramento County elections staff opened up the entire process to ABC10, including some of the steps they use to fix problems. We’ll answer some of the big questions people have about voting, like:
- How do they keep people from voting by mail twice?
- What if I changed my signature?
- Are my votes really kept secret, and how?
- What if I make a mistake filling out my ballot?
- How do they keep hackers out of the system?
- What if I damage my ballot?
Can recall voters write in Gov. Newsom on question 2 of their ballots? | VERIFY
The California gubernatorial recall election is less than three weeks away, but voting has been going on via mail-in ballots since Aug. 16. To date, more than a million ballots have been cast.
The recall ballot is just two questions: One, should Gov. Gavin Newsom be recalled and, two, who should replace him. If 50% of voters choose “no” on question one, question two becomes moot. This has led to some voters to believe they can hedge their bets by voting “no” and writing in Newsom’s name on question two.
ABC10 looked into this claim by pouring through the trove of information available on the California Secretary of State’s website. ABC10 also spoke with Mary-Beth Moylan the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.
Key Dates
- Aug. 4 - Republican recall candidates debate
- Aug. 7 - Republican Party virtual delegate vote
- Aug. 16 - First day to vote by mail
- Aug. 17 - Republican Party debate #2 in Sacramento
- Aug. 25 - Debate #4 in Sacramento
- August 30 - Last day to register to vote
- Sept. 14 - Recall election day
California Recall Fast Facts
On July 17, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber released a list of the 41 candidates who qualified to run in the recall election. About 70 candidates initially filed a statement of intent to run with the secretary of state, according to Ballotpedia.
On July 21, Weber signed off on the finalized list of candidates who'll appear on the recall ballot. The number grew to 46 after a judge ruled that candidates should not be required to submit tax forms for a recall election.
The final day for candidates to file paperwork to run in the recall election was July 16.
The final report from the Secretary of State's office, released on June 23, validated 1,719,943 signatures on the recall petition. The recall effort needed 1,495,709 verified signatures to trigger a recall election. Approximately 441,406 signatures were invalidated.
Only 43 people of the more than 1.7 million Californians who signed the recall petition chose to remove their name from the list.
On July 1, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis finalized the cost of the election at $276 million.