Democrat Drops Bill to Reveal California Recall Petition Signers
State Sen. Newman: “The environment is so charged around the recall that it made it hard to have a thoughtful discussion around this bill.”
California state Sen. Josh Newman (D) dropped his bill that would reveal the names on recall petitions:
State Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat, said Tuesday he’s pulling the bill due to pressure from supporters of a likely recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat. Newman’s bill would not have applied to the anti-Newsom effort, but that movement’s supporters vehemently opposed it, saying it would violate citizen privacy and intimidate voters.
“The environment is so charged around the recall that it made it hard to have a thoughtful discussion around this bill,” Newman said.
Newman, who represents parts of Orange County, was recalled from office in 2018 but won election again in 2020.
California voters can recall governors, state lawmakers, judges and local elected officials.
The petition to recall Newsom hit the needed number in February and continues to grow.
The state legislature would not have passed the bill in time for Newsom to view those who signed the recall petition.
More from AP:
Newman’s proposal would have allowed an elected official facing a recall to see the names of people who signed the petition so they can contact them to make sure they understood what they signed and see if they want to remove their names. People currently have 30 days to remove their names from a recall petition once state elections officials determine there are enough signatures.
Newman argues the current system means bad actors could dupe people into signing a recall petition with no recourse for the target. But opponents of the measure said it would violate the right to privacy. Orrin Heatlie, the leader of the recall drive against Newsom, testified against the bill last week.
“They were sort of leveraging this bill and representing this bill as an attack on not just the recall but on them and their constitutional rights,” Newman said. “It wasn’t a good context to have a conversation.”
Voters recalled Newman in 2018 “ostensibly for his affirmative vote on Senate Bill 1, which increased gas and diesel taxes and raised DMV registration fees in California.”
Newman won in 2020 due to the large Democrat turnout at the polls.
The judiciary committee would have heard from Newsom recall leader Orrin Heatlie this week. Last week, Heatlie and other supporters told the elections committee that the bill would violate citizens’ privacy.
Newman said he might bring back the bill during the next session. Heatlie will watch closely:
Heatlie said he will be watching and plans to oppose the bill if it comes back in the future.
“This is an outright attack on people’s right to privacy and serves only to intimidate those would be petitioners from signing or goad people who signed to rescind their signatures in fear of retaliation or retribution,” he said in a text message.
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Comments
I don’t think anyone ever answered my question on the last related article.
After every initiative or recall petition deadline, vultures from the opposing side always descend upon the petitions, looking to disqualify as many signatures as they can to get it thrown out. These organizations are often strongly tied to a political party or a particular officeholder.
If these people — some of whom legally represent the recall target — have the right to look at these signatures now, what would this bill have changed that would make anything worse?
Oh…maybe several thousand thugs making certain no recall on a Dem happens again.
Plus having the Democrat state and local bureaucracy working to make the life of anyone wanting to recall someone in power a living hell. [California being a permanent Democrat-Socialist Peoples’ Republic.]
Subotai Bahadur
Yeah, none of this really addresses my question, which is — why is this not just as possible an abuse under the CURRENT rules of petition access?
Because the public identification of persons who sign petitions is affirmatively blocked by laws meant to prevent “chilling” the right to petition government and participation in other democratic processes?
Just a guess, because if there weren’t laws against it now, the IDs of those who signed the Newsome recall petitions would almost certainly have already been revealed.
its racist to require ID and validation of signatures on recall petitions.
I demand we have full mail-in ballots to everyone on the voter roll for all recall petitions.
You know, a campaign could be made out of this. Make it illegal to require any stronger validation of recall proponents than is currently applied to election-day voters.
I bet they hold recall signatures to much a much higher level of scrutiny than they do absentee or mail-in voting ballots.
Given my understanding of the bill it would also allow the public to see the names/addresses/phone numbers of those that signed a petition. Something not allowed under current law.
Ah, “the public.” That’s clearer, at least.
See, this story and the previous one on LI both regurgitated some version of the following “explanation:”
So I guess the question is, is this just the AP whoring for the socialist party, as it always does, and lying by omission; or is the “public” nexus an overwrought interpretation?
Translation: We already have the names and addresses, and we’re leaking them to only carefully selected Leftists right now for maximum impact and extortion. Later, we’ll claim a hacker broke into the site and stole them when we release all of the names.
To be fair to their Pro-Choice religious orientation, they sincerely believe that all’s fair in lust and abortion, which, in the near-term, has been confirmed and reinforced over more than 18 trimesters. Demos-cracy is aborted at the Twilight Fringe.
I witnessed in CA businesses and individuals that opposed the same sex marriage proposition (i.e. gave donations) show up on an application so you could put in an address and see all your “dumb” neighbors.
Democratic suppression. In a progressive liberal society, democracy is aborted at the Twilight Fringe. Can Democrats abort the baby, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too? The magic eight ball indicates that threats of cancellation and promises of redistributive change will facilitate entry through the back… black hole… whore h/t NAACP. Forward!
They reached the required number in February. What is the hold up? What are they waiting for? Schedule the recall election already!
I live in CA. You would be astounded how many ways the Establishment (meaning Democrat machine) can stall or derail something they don’t want.
I put it at 50/50 the recall actually happens. If it does, it will be drug out to the point no one remembers much about it.
Recall that nimrod again.