International news agencies predict Democrat Gavin Newsom will continue as governor of California remember vote Held on Tuesday (14).
With 62% of ballots counted, Newsom was ahead by 32 percentage points: 66% of voters said he should remain in office and 34% said he should be removed. The Associated Press (AP), Reuters and CNN International project a victory for the Democrat, who will remain in office until his term ends in January 2023.
It will still take a few days for the official result to be released and will be certified only in October.
Newsom is already celebrating the victory. “Voters said yes to science, vaccines, right to vote without fear, diversity, inclusion and women’s rights,” she said.
Understand why recall elections happen
California’s electoral rules allow this type of recall – recently, there were changes to the law that made it easier to call for this mechanism: it is required to collect the equivalent of 12% of voters who participated in the previous ballot.
For Newsom’s public call, it was necessary to collect the signatures of 1.5 million voters (40 million residents in California).
Newsom’s campaign to repeal the mandate has gained traction with conservatives who disagree with policies on LGBTQI+ rights, crime, and immigration. They were even more troubled by the management of the pandemic (schools were closed and masks and vaccines are mandatory).
Newsom was elected in 2018. He garnered about 62 percent of the vote over John Cox, who received 38 percent of the vote. The result was not surprising, as American politics in California has leftist bias. Members of the Democratic Party outnumber members of the Republican Party by a ratio of two to one.
The vote was the first ballot box match between Republicans and Democrats since the turbulent 2020 presidential election. The Democrats’ victory was already expected as the party has more registered voters in the state.
