Did California verify the signatures for the Newsom recall, but not the mail-in ballots?

Last year, Gavin Newsom’s recall movement began after growing frustration with the Democratic governor’s leadership of California.

Organizers of Recall Gavin 2020 and Rescue California cited several reasons Newsom “let Californians down” including rising unemployment, homelessness, high taxes, increased crime, lack of affordable housing , the disrespect of immigration laws and his decision to “override the will of the people regarding the death penalty.”

Rescue California is a political committee that also helped in the recall of California Governor Gray Davis in 2003. According to its website, Rescue California’s goal is to “strengthen current recall efforts by circulating petitions and validating signatures. to ensure the qualification and planning of a special election to recall Governor Newsom. “

The movement has gathered momentum in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as many Californians grew increasingly upset with Newsom’s lockdown policy, vaccine rollout and after photos were released online of a Maskless Newsom having dinner with lobbyists in the French Laundry restaurant.

As of Feb. 10, the recall petition had reached more than 1.5 million signatures, according to Rescue California president and former California Republican Party chairman Thomas Del Beccaro.

California law states that petitions for the recall of state officers “must be signed by voters equal to 12 percent of the last vote for that office, and must include at least five counties equal to 1 for that office. cent of the last vote for that county. ” According to the Rescue California recall website, this means that 1,495,709 valid signatures are the minimum requirement for Newsom’s recall.

Requirement

The recall effort has been granted an extension to collect the required signatures, which are now due on March 17. Counties have until April 29 to verify signatures.

Some people have expressed frustration online about the need to verify the validity of signatures on the recall petition.

Actor Kevin Sorbo tweeted that California required signature verification for Newsom’s recall petition, but did not need the same verification for November 2020 election mail-in ballots.

California therefore requires a signature verification for the Gavin Newsom recall, but has not required it for mail in the ballots. It’s strange

– Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) February 15, 2021

Facts

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale addressed the tweet, claiming it was bogus.

“California verified the signatures of people who voted by mail in 2020,” Dale said. “The counties verified the signatures on the ballot envelopes against the signatures recorded in the voter registration records.”

It doesn’t take Herculean effort to figure out that this viral claim is wrong.

California verified the signatures of people who voted by mail in 2020. Counties verified the signatures on voting envelopes against signatures recorded in voter registration records. pic.twitter.com/KTqUVmjB6Z

– Daniel Dale (@ ddale8) February 15, 2021

The California Secretary of State’s Twitter account shared a section of the California State Code that describes the signature verification process.

In a statement to Newsweek, the California Secretary of State’s office confirmed that county election officials verify signatures on every mail-in, initiative, referendum or recall request and candidate nomination document.

According to the California State Code of Regulations, “for signature verification, the election official must compare the signature on an initiative, referendum, reminder, petition or nomination paper, signature in lieu of filing fee , and any other petition or paper must be against the voter signature (s) in the voter registration register. Additionally, the election officer must compare the signature on a voting envelope by mail and a provisional voting envelope with the voter signature (s) in the voter registration record before counting a ballot. “

The California code also states that anyone who signs the recall petition must be a registered voter within the jurisdiction of the official against whom the recall attempt is being pursued. If the signer is not a registered voter in California, the signature will not be counted. If the submitted petition contains more than 500 signatures, election officials can use a random sampling method to verify the validity of the signatures.

While the process for verifying signatures may vary slightly from county to county, state officials said the process for verifying “should generally be the same whether they are reviewing the ballots or the ballots. petitions “.

Ahead of the November 2020 election, California was bracing for a record number of postal and deposit ballots ahead of Election Day.

According to election officials, the two-step signature verification process involved passing the ballots through a sorter that takes a photo of the signature on the ballot envelope and compares it to the signature on the ballot. voter in the file.

“If it doesn’t look like it’s a complete match, that kicks it out of the system and returns it to the file of some of our human eyes looking at the signature. [on the envelope] and the signature we have on file to determine if they feel it’s a game, ”said Janna Haynes, Sacramento County Public Information Officer in October 2020.

If the signatures did not pass those tests, the ministry said it would contact the voter and ask them to submit a new signature.

“I want voters to be sure that just because their signature does not match that we automatically destroy their ballot. We are doing everything possible to contact voters to ask them to submit a new signature … we work really hard to make sure every vote counts, ”Haynes said.

decision

False.

According to the California Code of Regulations, signatures on mail-in ballots and recall requests must go through a verification process.