Sacramento Superior Court Judge James Arguelles granted a grass-roots movement 120 additional days to collect 1,495,709 signed petitions to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Currently, 700,000 signed recall petitions have been verified, according to Mike Netter, co-founder of Recall Gavin 2020.
A recall allows for an elected official to be removed from office before their term limit is up by a public vote but first a certain number of signatures must be collected and verified with the Secretary of State much like a ballot initiative, according to media reports.
“The recall taking place during an election season is both a blessing and a curse because people's attention is distracted by national politics instead of being focused on the state level,” Netter told the Southern California Record.
Netter, a Republican, is disappointed with Joseph Biden being unofficially named president-elect but hopeful because the 120 additional days grants new hope to recall Gov. Newsom.
“Until Friday, we still had 7% fewer votes reported as a state than the last presidential election, which means that four days after the election, the largest state in the union still had not counted 20% of its votes and yet the Associated Press, which is a media outlet that doesn't certify the elections, declares the winner based on algorithms and magical math that no one is privy to," he said.
The upside, Netter added, is that the push to recall Gov. Newsom has benefited from the uncertain political environment.
For example, businessman John Cox donated six figures to the recall effort.
“Now that national elections are over, people suddenly have a lot more political awareness and it’s driving awareness to recall Gov. Newsom,” he said. “It’s brought us more volunteers and the potential for a lot more big donors who are now freed up from their local elections.”
For one thing, a rally with Trump supporters speaking out against Biden being declared president-elect is an opportunity to gain new petition signatures.
“There are major ones in California almost every day, this week,” Netter said. “There’s a pro-Trump rally on Wednesday in San Diego at the Board of Registers. There's one in Ventura on Friday and there's probably 20 or more up and down the state.”
As previously reported, organizers of the Recall Gavin Newsom 2020 movement drive a 24-foot truck, which opens like a serving counter, across the state.
After the required signed petitions are gathered and verified, a recall election must take place as a special election within 90 days, according to the Secretary of State website
“A signature on a recall is so much different than a vote even though you've got to be a registered voter to sign a petition,” Netter said. “The one thing we're doing that's different than the other recalls that have even taken place in 2020, or attempted to take place, is we're using a professional verification service to verify the signed petitions.”