It’s been months since more than two million California voters signed a petition in an effort to recall Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in the State of California. After a lengthy process and tons of campaigning from several different candidates, Newsom and his opponents will finally get the answer directly from the voters.
Recent polls show that Newsom has pulled away from the rest of the pack and is generally likely to survive the recall. This speculation comes from the ballot return data by political party. There is only one problem with this assumption. There is no guarantee that every single democrat will vote to keep Newsom in office. In fact, there’s no way to really know the percentage and the same thing goes for independent voters.
When polls close later tonight, it will be much easier to understand how competitive this race truly is. Many voters believe Newsom will stay in office with a margin greater than 20%. Others think that this might be the closest statewide race in California in nearly two decades.
Millions of ballots have already been turned in through dropboxes or the mail-in system. Millions of more ballots are likely to be cast today until polls are closed later this evening. Mail-in ballots will be counted first and then the in-person vote will start to be tabulated in those counts.
California is known for counting very slowly due to the significant statewide population. Since the State of California is not traditionally a battleground state, many political observers do not realize how slow the state actually counts during large elections.
Larry Elder and other Republicans are hoping that they will be competitive in this election because it could be one of the best chances to turn California and get it running on the right track. Newsom is struggling to contain the pandemic, wildfires, droughts, and currently has the highest gas prices in the nation. In addition to these metrics, homelessness is off the charts in California and even Democratic voters are getting sick and tired of it.
We could be hours away from declaring a winner in the California Recall Race and it will be truly interesting to see what happens because this race could have major implications for the rest of the country during this time of crisis.
