California voters have overhauled the state’s recall election process, approving Proposition 5, a Democrat-backed measure that supporters say will curb the kind of partisan gamesmanship that has long shadowed efforts to remove elected officials from office.
Under the new system, recalls will unfold in two distinct steps rather than one. Voters will first decide whether to remove an official from office. Only if that vote succeeds will a second election follow to choose a replacement. Previously, both questions appeared on the same ballot at the same time, a format critics said often produced muddled or unrepresentative outcomes.
With roughly 91% of ballots counted as of Thursday, nine days after Election Day, the measure was passing with about 52% support to 48% opposition.
Democratic lawmakers placed the constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot, contending that the old two-in-one system wasted taxpayer money, confused voters and could produce results widely seen as undemocratic, since a replacement candidate could win with far less than a majority of the vote.
The push for reform gained momentum after Republicans increasingly turned to the recall process in recent years as a tool against Democratic officeholders. Governor Gavin Newsom, who beat back his own recall attempt in 2021, threw his support behind the measure.
Support for Proposition 5 was strongest in Democratic strongholds including San Francisco, Alameda and Los Angeles counties, where voters backed the change by wide margins. More rural, conservative-leaning counties in Northern California, such as El Dorado and Shasta, favored keeping the existing rules in place.
The roots of the reform effort trace back to the unsuccessful 2021 campaign to oust Newsom, an episode that cost taxpayers an estimated $200 million, with another $100 million spent by campaigns on both sides of the fight. Newsom ultimately prevailed, with 62% of voters choosing to keep him in office. In the aftermath, Democratic legislators and Secretary of State Shirley Weber began pushing for changes to the system.
The reform made its way onto the ballot after lawmakers passed Senate Constitutional Amendment 1 in 2024, a measure championed by Democratic state Sen. Josh Newman, who himself was recalled from office in 2018.
Republican legislators opposed the change, arguing it was unnecessary, would weaken voters’ influence over the process and would add costs by requiring two separate elections instead of one. Unlike many ballot measures that attract heavy spending from advocacy groups, Proposition 5 saw no significant campaign funding from outside organizations.
Recall efforts are frequently launched in California but rarely make it to the ballot. Since 1913, only 11 recalls have gone before voters statewide, and just six have succeeded. The most famous case under the old system came in 2003, when voters recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger in the same election.
Original source: CalMatters
