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Posted on 06/23/2003 10:35:46 PM PDT by heleny
SACRAMENTO -- The Republican-led campaign to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis has collected nearly 400,000 signatures, close to half the number needed to put it on the ballot, elections officials in California counties reported Monday.
Recall proponents have claimed they were well on their way to collecting the 897,158 needed valid signatures, but Monday's deadline for counties to report totals to the secretary of state was an important date for them to prove they actually were.
The submitted signatures were those collected as of June 16. Many counties said they'd collected thousands of additional signatures since then.
Recall supporters said the numbers indicate they will collect the needed signatures by mid-July and force a special election in the fall, when they believe they would have the best chance of prevailing.
"We're definitely on target," said Dave Gilliard, director of Rescue California. Gilliard estimated the group has collected around 900,000 signatures total, many of which have not been submitted.
The signatures turned in so far have not been verified as valid. Political experts say the recall drive should collect significantly more signatures than required to allow for a percentage likely to be found invalid.
Recall opponents said that recall backers still have a long way to go.
"At some point the disconnect between the spin of the proponents and the reality of the reporting - the actual verifiable reporting - has to be called into question," said Carroll Wills, spokesman for Taxpayers Against the Recall.
Under the recall process, counties must report signature totals to the secretary of state every 30 days. Monday's deadline counted signature collections as of June 16. At the last deadline, in May, recall supporters reported only 18,590 signatures. The final deadline for signatures is Sept. 2.
The secretary of state's office declined to make the numbers public Monday, so The Associated Press contacted the clerk's offices of all 58 counties directly. Responses were received from all except Placer, Tehama and Trinity.
The total signatures collected as of mid-June by the other 55 counties was 389,337.
The recall campaign is targeting Davis at a time when his approval rating has sunk to 28 percent amid voter wrath over the state's energy crisis and record budget deficit.
"His policy is not to handle things but to put things off and let them become crises," community college student Steven Sequoia, 30, said after signing a recall petition last week in Carlsbad.
If the recall qualifies, voters would be asked to vote yes or no on ousting Davis, and would then choose from a list of candidates to replace him. The candidate getting the most votes would win.
The only declared candidate so far is U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, a conservative car alarm magnate who has spent $1 million to back the recall.
Many voters interviewed as they signed petitions in recent days didn't know much about Issa and didn't much care who replaced Davis.
"Me! I'd do as good a job as that dummy has," said Ronald Larkins, 65, who signed a petition along with his wife outside a Sam's Club in Glendora.
Davis defended himself Monday on CNN's "Inside Politics," criticizing the recall as "divisive, partisan mischief" and insisting, "I know, if I can work through these problems and the economy recovers, people will feel better about themselves at the end of four years and better about the job I did."
Some of his critics appeared unwilling to wait.
"When you run a state that has a surplus and it goes to a deficit that is astronomical, there's something wrong there," said Ron Hurt, 46, of Hanford.
Of the total signatures, including ones not yet sent to the counties, Ted Costa said on the radio that San Diego County voters have sent 113k signatures and Orange County voters have sent 104k signatures, so those two counties are in 1st and 2nd place, respectively.
Can someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the Secratary of State is REQUIRED by law to report the offical numbers.
As far as Ms. Wills goes:"At some point the disconnect between the spin of the proponents and the reality of the reporting - the actual verifiable reporting - has to be called into question," said Carroll Wills, spokesman for Taxpayers Against the Recall.
I suggest she takes a look at this chart . Anybody can see how closely the number of signatures turned in matches the reported number. On June 15th the number is just under 400,000. You can't get more accurate than that.
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Similar or identical articles also appeared with the titles
Davis recall effort now at 389337 signatures -- Los Angeles Daily News
Davis foes have about half needed signatures -- Ventura County Star
Recall nears halfway mark -- Long Beach Press-Telegram
Counties Report Davis Recall Has Nearly Half Needed Signatures -- nbc4.tv
Counties report Davis recall nears half needed signatures (original title) - Press-Enterprise, San Jose Mercury News, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
I thought so, too, but I didn't know where to look for the law. My impression was that he had to keep a continuous count and write a report every 30 days. Anybody know?
Thanks for posting the link to the chart. Here it is for those who don't want to click links
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