Correction: This story has been updated with the most recent amount of valid signatures. Due to a misinterpretation of the count, ABC10 reported the incorrect number in a previous version of this story. A final status report of valid signatures for each county is scheduled for Friday, March 6.
Update March 2, 2020:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom appears to have survived both recall attempts against him after a second one failed to gather the required number of signatures that would have forced a special election.
Two separate recall attempts against Newsom formed in 2019. Erin Cruz was the first to do so, followed by Dr. James Veltmeyer, who created one of his own within the same month.
Veltmeyer's ended his recall attempt early after he said his initiative did not have big donors to fund the attempt. Cruz released a statement the same day that her recall effort is "moving full steam ahead," but it later failed.
Both campaigns needed to collect at least 1,495,709 signatures in order to force a special election. According to the California Secretary of State's Office, Cruz's recall initiative only collected 188,244 signatures. The final status report for verified signatures by county is scheduled to be received by the California Secretary of State's office on Friday, March 6.
RAN Action Fund, which is a political organization of which Cruz is the CEO, released a statement on social media saying that the results the state released are wrong. According to the social media post, the RAN Action Fund plans to audit the final results.
Cruz could not be reached for further comment.
Update Jan. 8 at 8 p.m.:
Erin Cruz, who is leading one of the two recall attempts to remove Gov. Gavin Newsom from office, announced on social media that her recall effort is "moving full steam ahead."
Dr. James Veltmeyer, who spearheaded the other recall attempt, said in his public statement that his recall effort did not receive enough funding to hire people to gather signatures to collect the approximate two million names that he needed.
Veltmeyer pointed to Cruz's recall attempt as creating "unnecessary confusion despite our sincere attempts to unify." Veltmeyer also said the Cruz recall did not collect enough signatures.
"Our grass roots, non partisan volunteers are working in all 58 counties," Cruz said in her post.
Cruz's deadline to collect the needed amount of signatures is Feb. 13.
Original story:
Gov. Gavin Newsom survived at least one recall attempt going into 2020, after a petition for his removal failed to gain enough signatures before a crucial
deadline.
Dr. James Veltmeyer, who spearheaded one of the recall attempts, released a statement on Monday saying that his recall campaign did not receive enough funding to hire people to gather signatures to collect the approximate two million names that he needed.
Veltmeyer said in a statement on his website that he could not get any big donors to step forward to fund the campaign. Veltmeyer said his recall movement only received $90,000 out of the $5 million he'd needed.
Veltmeyer also pointed to a second recall attempts against Newsom created by the Restoring America Now Action Fund and its creator Erin Cruz. Veltmeyer said the second petition complicated his campaign by creating "unnecessary confusion despite our sincere attempts to unify."
It's unclear if Cruz's recall effort is still happening, as she has not indicated if her campaign would not be able to collect the required signatures before the Feb. 13 deadline.
Veltmeyer could not be reached for further comment.
The only recall effort to successfully remove a California governor which forced a special election was against Gray Davis in 2003. California voters elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace Davis in the special election.
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