Efforts to recall California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, are currently underway; this is due to a collective set of grievances held by many CA citizens involving immigration policies, high taxes, and high poverty rates.

Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a potential recall election. A recall allows voters to remove a person elected in office. The recall is verified through a petition; this petition must list grievances the people have and must be signed by 12 % of registered voters from the previous election.

According to Jonathon Lloyd from NBC Los Angeles, “[S]upporters of the Newsom recall effort need 1.495,709 valid signatures” on their petition in order to trigger an election. This election will allow people to decide whether they want to keep or officially remove Newsom from office.

In their petition, proponents of Newsom’s recall insist, “Governor Newsom has implemented laws which are detrimental to the citizens of this state and our way of life. Laws he endorsed favor foreign nationals, in our country illegally, over that of our own citizens. People in this state suffer the highest taxes in the nation, the highest homelessness rates, and the lowest quality of life as a result.”

Pham is a junior at Mt. SAC ECA. They understand why some citizens want to recall Newsom, but do not specifically agree with the petitioners’ attempt.

“Some of the grievances seem valid, like homelessness. However, some of them are [not valid] like mask mandates and vaccinations,” Pham stated.

Pham believes that the pandemic has “gotten multiple groups of people to attempt to recall Newsom for different reasons.”

Like Pham states, the pandemic and its restrictions have definitely influenced many to sign in favor of recall.

Another Mt. SAC ECA student, junior Amira Labesh, agrees with the petitioners’ grievances: “[M]any people are being affected by Newsom’s actions, personally I always like the idea where nobody is harmed and in this case it seems that these petitioners are doing what is best for the people of California rather than just California.”

Homelessness rates, unemployment, and other issues affecting California residents are some of the reasons voters are in favor of recall.

Amira believes quarantine, a result of the pandemic, may have contributed to the recall attempt.

“[During] the pandemic it was up to Gov. Newsom to make some serious decisions and that outcome could have infuriated people… and during quarantine people had a lot more freetime causing for people to actually petition.”

In regards to Governor Newsom’s beliefs about the recall petition, KQED’s Marisa Lagos writes, “Newsom… said the recall petition takes aim at his broader progressive policy agenda…‘[The recall is] about immigration. It’s about our health care policies. It’s about our criminal justice reform. It’s about the diversity of the state. It’s about our clean air, clean water programs, meeting our environmental strategies.’”

March 17, 2021 was the deadline for turning in the petition’s signatures. Counties then have until April 29, 2021 to verify the signatures’ validity. In the middle of May, officials must share the amount of verified signatures; if that number surpasses the 1,495,709 needed, a recall election will be held. Voters would decide whether they want to keep Newsom, or remove the current governor and replace him with another candidate.