CA: Slow and steady does it for recall [90.6% valid in Contra Costa sample]

Contra Costa Times ^ | June 18, 2003 | Daniel Borenstein

[heleny]

CONTRA COSTA ELECTION officials have boosted the Gray Davis recall campaign's claim that the signature-gathering effort is being carefully conducted.

Only registered voters' signatures count. So, recall backers said, they were at first slow to turn in signatures because they were checking names against voter rolls.

[heleny]

The important facts:
90.6% of a sample of 500 signatures in Contra Costa County were valid. At that exceptional rate, we only need to turn in about 1.1 million signatures to avoid slow, manual verification of all signatures.

We need the all the signatures turned in to the counties by the end of this reporting period, July 16th, to ensure certification of the recall by September 4, which will force a fall special election.

[eureka!]

Good news. Davis will make history, though not the way he envisioned when he sold his office to the highest bidder....

[goldstategop]

I hope its either in October or November.

[ZGuy]

The question is - Will Secretary of State Kevin Shelley get the petitions in plenty of time for a fall election but then refuse to certify them (even if it means being fined, breaking laws, etc.) in order to make the dems happy and have this thing on the March ballot? It sounds like all the power is in his democratic hands as to when this election will be.

[Dog Gone]

That's the big question. It's not as if Democrats are particularly honorable about these things.

They ignore laws when they're inconvenient, and when they can't get around them, they might just flee to Ardmore.

[heleny]

I wouldn't put it beyond him to pull tricks like that. The Recall people know this, too, and realize that any frivolous lawsuit or delay would easily cost days or weeks.

I think Shelley is more likely to use the courts to delay things, by challenging everything in sight; if he simply refuses to perform his duties, he may face recall, too.

[heleny]

Heard on the radio: Bustmante won't run, either, so democrats will try to frame the recall as a GOP vs. Davis thing.

Don't know if these democrats' intentions will change after the recall is certified.

[Congressman Billybob]

This is a very important story in a very small newspaper. As a veteran of some two hundred petition campaigns, I can vouch for the fact that a 90.6% validity rate is OFF THE CHARTS.

This article confirms what I've been saying for months since I knew the nature and extent of the organization of the Davis Recall effort. They are doing everything correctly and very professionally. Therefore, they are going to succeed in putting this on the ballot -- despite the long history of half-*ssed recall efforts that went nowhere at the statewide level.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, now up FR, "Bits and Pieces."

[Reeses]

CoCo County is part of the Democrat stronghold SF Bay area, sits between Sin Freaksicko and the Crapitol in Sackashito. Davis has no friends.

They check randomly for signature validity, however there's no way to check for duplicates without checking them all.

[eureka!]

Re#3 Me too. When the recall qualifies, we are in for a ride too. The Rats and presstitutes are going to be going for the throat of whichever non-Rat looks to be viable. Hold on tightly...

[.38sw]

CoCo County is part of the Democrat stronghold SF Bay area

Parts of CoCo County are fairly conservative. They sent Guy Houston to the state assembly. On the other hand, they sent Ellen "Little Blue Dress" Tauscher to Congress.

[NormsRevenge]

[tubebender]

BUMP...

[bootless]

Parts of CoCo County are indeed very conservative. It's the folks in Lafayette (including a few I know) who have been on the 24 freeway overpass waving the flags everything 11th. There was one lone person on 6/11, but they were there! There are closet Freepers in the area ... hopefully, we won't have to be quite for much longer...

[dalereed]

One paragraph from todays RecallGrayDavis e-mail:

First - you will be very happy to know that as we end this week we are
creeping up on the 900,000-signature mark. We've been inundated with
petitions this past week and I encourage each of you to go to our website
http://www.RecallGrayDavis.com and download and collect 5 more signatures
by the end of the weekend.

[liberalnot]

i saw a petitioner outside a supermarket today. i read the fine print. at the bottom is costa's name and telephone #.

but the petition has a paragraph to the effect that "right wing republicans are trying to steal an election in which 8,000,000 california voters placed davis in office".

i confronted the guy and he claims he's legit, but said, i don't understand that paragraph."

what gives?

[NormsRevenge]

If they sample out high validity statewide, wooo hoooo!!

Is it the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end for demRats statewide as well.

This will force the demRats to run a Fall Election .. late November early December - November timeframe I reckun. imho :-]

Shelley and Cruz.. Do the Right Thing! Do your sworn duty, No Hanky Panky!

Roll On, Kind Sir, Roll On!!

[Navy Patriot]

The petition is legit. That paragraph is the official opposition response similar to what you find in the election ballot arguments pamphlet.

[.38sw]

We lived in Lafayette until last August, when we moved to a bordering town. Closet freeper here! Although, I wear my Recall Gray Davis.com T shirt on the weekends, and have netted a few signatures that way, and handed spare petitions to some folks.

[liberalnot]

thanks.