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Hot take: California's recall rules are anti-democratic. It takes 12% of the voters in the last election to to demand a recall. Has there ever been a politician

Hot take: California's recall rules are anti-democratic. It takes 12% of the voters in the last election to to demand a recall. Has there ever been a politician with less than 12% of voters strongly against them? A recall happens whenever someone rich enough wants one. Those 1,495,709 signatures aren't cheap. https://ballotpedia.org/California_ballot_initiative_petition_signature_costs https://ballotpedia.org/California_ballot_initiative_petitio...

notsureaboutpg 6y ago
Hotter take: It's very democratic, and too much democracy is bad for efficient, practical rule California's recall rules are democratic (a recall is just calling an election thus there's sense in keeping the signature level low, winning/losing the recall is completely democratic). BUT, democratic isn't always better. The ability of the people to call elections whenever they want to puts a strain on the finances of the ruling party. Unforeseen elections also sow doubt and discord among the populace. In addition, most voters aren't educated on the issues and might recall a sitting leader without really considering whether it's merited or not. That can lead to long-term problems when governance is constantly doing and undoing policies rather than committing to long-term strategic plans.
dragonwriter 6y ago
The rules for the replacement election (FPTP with no primary, held on the same ballot as the yes/no on the recall) are particularly perverse and chaotic, and are both the main reason we don’t see more recalls with how easy they are (because even if you know you can recall the target, the replacement selection process is both poorly representative and unpredictable even with a solid knowledge of popular preferences) and the main motivation for factions that are convinced they can't compete in regular elections to seek them. > Those 1,495,709 signatures aren't cheap. 20 years ago I remember valid signatures on California recall or ballot petitions were pretty consistently about $1/signature in signature gathering expenditures; even if that's gone up since then, it's not that expensive, especially considering the potential impact.
- cheriot 6y ago
  I linked to the costs in my comment. For ballot initiatives in 2020 it was between $5.59 and %10.37 per signature. Somewhere around 15% of signatures are invalidated putting the recall effort between $9,615,165 and $17,837,077 for the signatures alone.
  - oliwarner 6y ago
    So a month's rent in the Bay Area? But seriously, that's not even pocket money for plenty of people who are against this governor, it's a rounding error.

notsureaboutpg 6y ago

Hotter take: It's very democratic, and too much democracy is bad for efficient, practical rule California's recall rules are democratic (a recall is just calling an election thus there's sense in keeping the signature level low, winning/losing the recall is completely democratic). BUT, democratic isn't always better. The ability of the people to call elections whenever they want to puts a strain on the finances of the ruling party. Unforeseen elections also sow doubt and discord among the populace. In addition, most voters aren't educated on the issues and might recall a sitting leader without really considering whether it's merited or not. That can lead to long-term problems when governance is constantly doing and undoing policies rather than committing to long-term strategic plans.

dragonwriter 6y ago

The rules for the replacement election (FPTP with no primary, held on the same ballot as the yes/no on the recall) are particularly perverse and chaotic, and are both the main reason we don’t see more recalls with how easy they are (because even if you know you can recall the target, the replacement selection process is both poorly representative and unpredictable even with a solid knowledge of popular preferences) and the main motivation for factions that are convinced they can't compete in regular elections to seek them. > Those 1,495,709 signatures aren't cheap. 20 years ago I remember valid signatures on California recall or ballot petitions were pretty consistently about $1/signature in signature gathering expenditures; even if that's gone up since then, it's not that expensive, especially considering the potential impact.

cheriot 6y ago
I linked to the costs in my comment. For ballot initiatives in 2020 it was between $5.59 and %10.37 per signature. Somewhere around 15% of signatures are invalidated putting the recall effort between $9,615,165 and $17,837,077 for the signatures alone.
- oliwarner 6y ago
  So a month's rent in the Bay Area? But seriously, that's not even pocket money for plenty of people who are against this governor, it's a rounding error.