California Gov. Gavin Newsom will remain in office

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom defeated a GOP-backed effort to remove him from office, according to a projection from the CNN Decision Desk.

A majority of California voters rejected Tuesday’s recall effort and voted “no” on whether they want to remove Newsom from office.

In case you missed it, here’s what you need to know about the special election:

Newsom will remain in office: Speaking from Sacramento, Newsom thanked Californians for rejecting the recall effort. He also addressed the divisions in the country, describing democracy like an “antique vase.” “You can drop it and smash it in a million different pieces. And that’s what we’re capable of doing if we don’t stand up to meet the moment and push back,” he said.

GOP candidate Larry Elder acknowledged defeat: Elder, the leading Republican replacement and one of 46 candidate who qualified to have their name listed in the race to replace the governor, told his supports: “Let’s be gracious in defeat.” He added: “By the way, we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.”

Newsom’s re-election bid: A Newsom campaign source says the Democratic governor will wake up Wednesday morning with $24 million of cash on hand for his re-election and an “online army” of volunteers that he can reconnect with as his future unfolds.

Democrats look toward 2022 midterms: The White House and Democrats are looking at the numbers in California with confidence tonight. While President Biden didn’t put Newsom over the finish line, he and other Democrats will still bask in the glow of the Covid-19 response: Voters are responding favorably to vaccine and mask mandates – and rejecting Trumpism. With the 2022 midterm elections looming, Democrats see this as an unquestionable boost – only because losing would have been so disastrous for the party.

Read more about how the recall election unfolded here.

Republicans had hoped for a resurgence in California through the recall, but it now looks like they have strengthened Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hand for 2022 – and possibly even given him a better launching pad for his potential White House ambitions.

Newsom’s “stop the recall” campaign raised more than $71 million, a stunning figure that completely overwhelmed all of his GOP rivals. A Newsom campaign source says the Democratic governor will wake up Wednesday morning with $24 million of cash on hand for his re-election and an “online army” of volunteers that he can reconnect with as his future unfolds.

The campaign says they received over 600,000 small dollar donations – which they define as less than $100 – and that 90% of those were from California. All donors that he can re-activate as he heads into his re-election campaign.

His critics point out, however, that if Newsom does run for President, we’ll still be talking about his visit to The French Laundry for many years to come.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the divisions in the country as he reflected on his campaign efforts to defeat the gubernatorial recall, describing democracy like an “antique vase.”

“You can drop it and smash it in a million different pieces. And that’s what we’re capable of doing if we don’t stand up to meet the moment and push back,” Newsom said during his remarks from Sacramento.

He continued: “I said this many, many times on the campaign trail. You know, we may have defeated Trump, but Trumpism is not dead in this country. The big lie. The January 6th insurrection. All the voting suppression efforts that are happening all across this country. What’s happening, the assault on fundamental rights, constitutionally protected rights of women and girls. It’s a remarkable moment in our nation’s history.”

Newsom ended his remarks by paying homage to the late Robert Kennedy, who he described as his “political hero.”

“But I’m reminded of something, I don’t know, a few decades ago, someone told me when describing a difficult and challenging moment. Said the ‘The world is too small, our time is too short, and our wisdom is too limited to win fleeting victories at other people’s expenses.’ And he went on to say ‘We must all triumph together.’ So in that spirit of recognizing and reconciling this moment and trying to understand what’s going on not just here in the state but all across the United States of America, I just want to say this; tonight I’m humbled, grateful, but resolved in the spirit of my political hero, Robert Kennedy, to make more gentle the life of this world. Thank you all very much, and thank you to 40 million Americans, 40 million Californians, and thank you for rejecting this recall,” he said.

While delivering remarks in Sacramento Tuesday night, Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke about setting an example of unity for children, rather than teaching divisiveness.

“I just think of our kids watching all of this. Nightly news, day in and day out, and I just wonder — I’ve got four young kids, oldest about to turn 12 this weekend — and what they’re growing up to. In a world, we’re so divided. These kids increasingly fearful, isolated, disconnected. And we’re teaching them that. And it doesn’t have to be that way,” Newsom said.

“I think we owe our kids a deeper sense of respect, and all of us as adults, [have] a responsibility to disregard this false separateness. We’re so much more in common as a state and a nation than we give ourselves credit for,” he said.

The governor thanked Californians for “rejecting so much of the negativity that has defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years.”

He later tweeted that Californians “rejected cynicism and bigotry and chose hope and progress.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked voters for rejecting the recall and for reaffirming his policy and values platform during remarks from the state’s capitol.

“An overwhelmingly no vote tonight here in the state of California. That was expressed tonight. I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state,” Newsom said.

Newsom continued: “We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to people’s right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression. We said yes to women’s fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body and her fate and future. We said yes to diversity. We said yes to inclusion. We said yes to pluralism. We said yes to all those things that he we hold dear as Californians and I would argue as Americans. Economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice. Our values, where California’s made so much progress. All of those things were on the ballot this evening.”

Watch Gov. Newsom’s remarks:

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Moments after CNN projected that Democrat Gavin Newsom defeated the recall effort and will remain the governor of California, CNN’s Kasie Hunt described what she sees as sustained Democratic participation following the 2020 presidential election.

“The margin that we’re seeing early in the night is huge for Gavin Newsom. It’s bigger than, you know, many people expected, certainly than many of my sources expected it to be,” Hunt said.

“I think that shows you that Democrats are still really engaged or that you can engage them. They haven’t tuned out of the news after four years of Donald Trump. They are still afraid of that kind of governance coming back, of living that way again. And there is a way to activate that instinct,” she said. 

Hunt added that Democrats have not demonstrated complacency following a victory in the 2020 presidential election.

“Sometimes, when you win elections, your voters sit back. They say, ‘Everything’s fine. Nothing to worry about. I don’t need to get engaged. I don’t need to get to the polls.’ That didn’t happen here tonight,” Hunt said.

California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is delivering remarks now from Sacramento, California.

CNN projected that the governor will remain in office after a majority of voters voted “no” in Tuesday’s recall election.

“I am humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of Californians who exercised their fundamental right to vote, and expressed themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division, by rejecting the cynicism, by rejecting so much of the negativity that’s defined our politics in this country over the course of so many years,” Newsom said.

CNN’s Van Jones responded to California voters’ decision to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in office, saying the progressive leader of the nation’s most populous state was likely “humbled” by the near miss.

“I think he’s been humbled by this experience,” said Jones, speaking just moments after CNN projected that Newsom would survive the Republican lead recall effort. “Your successes give you your confidence. Your step backs give you your character.”

Jones said Newsom “was looking down the barrel of his career being over, and he had to find something in himself, and you saw that in him.”

“He found a deeper passion,” Jones added.

The White House and Democrats are looking at the numbers in California with confidence tonight.

While President Biden didn’t put Newsom over the finish line, he and other Democrats will still bask in the glow of the Covid-19 response: Voters are responding favorably to vaccine and mask mandates – and rejecting Trumpism. 

With the 2022 midterm elections looming, Democrats see this as an unquestionable boost – only because losing would have been so disastrous for the party.

From the White House to the party committees, officials are enthusiastic tonight – even though it’s unclear what effect it will have on House and Senate races – if any.

One top Democratic official offered this caveat to CNN: “It’s more of a warning sign for them than anything for us. But we’ll take it.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom survives GOP-backed recall effort and will remain in office after a majority of voters voted “no” in Tuesday’s recall election, according to a projection from the CNN Decision Desk.

California voters were asked just two questions on the recall ballot: First, “yes” or “no” on whether they want to remove Newsom from office. 

Newsom will now finish out the remainder of his term.

Watch CNN’s projection:

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Unions were critical to Democratic turnout efforts in the recall — something Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged in in the final weeks of the election.

In Los Angeles county alone, the entire affiliation of labor unions through the AFL-CIO called more than 1 million phone numbers and knocked on over 130,000 doors, according to the organization’s spokesperson Christian Castro. In total, the federation spent over $2.1 million on the recall effort and coordinated a total of 3,265 volunteer shifts.

Newsom acknowledged his campaign was leaning on unions in the final days of the campaign.

“It’s not a persuasion campaign,” Newsom told reporters earlier this month in Los Angeles. “I mean, you’ll still find people that may be on the fence, but it’s really about turnout. Labor knows how to turn out.”

Unions also poured millions into the effort to stop the recall.

Newsom’s campaign told CNN earlier this month that local chapters of the Service Employees International Union, California Teachers Association, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, State Building and Construction Trades Council, Laborers’ International Union of North America, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Association have contributed a combined $14 million to fight the recall and protect Newsom.

More than 50% of the estimated vote is in California’s recall election and the question over whether California Gov. Gavin Newsom should be removed from office is on the ballot.

So far, the “no” vote – rejecting Newsom’s removal has an early lead.

Newsom’s team was projecting confidence as the finish line came into view Tuesday night, with one top adviser telling CNN they “could be headed for record turnout” in a statewide special election. That would be a clear advantage for the Democratic governor in this overwhelmingly blue state.

CNN has not yet made a projection in the race.

CNN’s Maeve Reston and Gregory Krieg contributed reporting to this post. 

While CNN is not yet able to make a projection, the “no” vote – rejecting the removal of California Gov. Gavin Newsom – has an early lead in CNN’s exit poll.

If that lead holds, he will retain his job as governor of California.

The polls have closed in California, where voters are deciding whether to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom from office. The first returns are expected soon.

If a majority of voters vote “yes” to the recall, he’ll be out of office and the top vote-getter on the ballot’s second question – about who should replace Newsom – will take over.

The effort to oust Newsom, who was elected in 2018, was launched last year by conservative Californians critical of the governor’s record on multiple issues. The effort gained steam after criticism of Newsom’s handling of the pandemic. 

Newsom was the first governor to implement a stay-at-home order as the coronavirus spread unabated, a move later repeated in many other states. As the pandemic-induced restrictions implemented to quell the spread of the virus wore on frustrated residents, the recall movement picked up when Newsom visited Napa’s swanky French Laundry restaurant for a birthday party, a move he later called “a mistake.”

Conservative radio show host Larry Elder, Newsom’s leading challenger, campaigned on what he called Newsom’s “abject failure” in handling the Covid-19 crisis, and believes a strong showing of in-person voters will carry him to victory. Elder is one of 46 candidates vying to replace Newsom, including former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and the man Newsom beat in the 2018 election, John Cox.

There have been many attempts to recall governors throughout California’s storied political history, yet only once has the move been successful. In 2003, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was removed from office and replaced with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

If Newsom retains his position as the leader of the most populous state in the nation, he will face a reelection contest next year. 

The recall election is expected to cost California more than $270 million.

Despite a barrage of election conspiracy theories, California election officials have actually been working for months to ensure the security and integrity of the voting process. 

San Francisco’s director of elections described for CNN the rigorous security procedures involved. By-mail and in-person voting systems contain extensive transaction logs that monitor each part of the scanning and tabulation process. After Election Day, officials conduct a manual tally of ballots to ensure results match official records. 

The elections director also said ballot images are posted online after the election to ensure transparency with the public. 

On election night, two sheriff deputies are assigned to escort ballots and digital memory cards from each of the 580 polling locations to the city’s main processing center. 

“There are so many steps and so many processes and so many people involved in upholding the sanctity of an election and ensuring the election runs according to how people would expect them to be run,” the official said.

Latino voters are often late deciders and many vote in person on Election Day, but Gov. Gavin Newsom strategists and Democratic leaders were very worried about early signs that pointed to a potential underperformance among those voters, who were hit hard by the pandemic.

The “no” on the recall campaign heavily ramped up outreach to those voters in the final days of this campaign.

Early exit polls suggest that Latinos made up 25% of the electorate. That number was higher than several Democratic strategists were expecting.

If that trend were to hold, they said the turning point in getting Latinos to turn in their ballots was Newsom’s effort to sharpen the contrast between his own record and the xenophobic rhetoric and anti-immigrant statements by GOP candidate Larry Elder (as well as Elder’s positions on health care).

Newsom had warned Elder would bring back the days of Proposition 187 (a proposition that would have denied health care, education and welfare benefits to undocumented immigrants). Newsom needed it to be less of a referendum on his handling of Covid-19, and more about creating the fear about what Elder might do on immigration and health care in order to start moving that vote.

One source said he interpreted the numbers as a sign that Latinos “are coming back to say: “we trust you, we believe you, but don’t take us for granted.”

One of the reasons Gov. Gavin Newsom’s strategists are feeling so confident tonight is because of the scale of their ground game in California – a state where campaigns normally just play out through television ads.

Newsom’s team scrambled to build out a huge, coordinated operation over 10 weeks by partnering with labor groups and 90 community organizations. As of this evening, the head of Newsom’s ground game operation told CNN they have had “real conversations” with about 1.5 million voters over the course of about seven weeks – noting that’s “at a scale bigger than most of the presidential campaigns.”

They’ve been averaging about 600,000 attempts to reach voters per day. That includes the thousands of walkers who still are out in 15 counties going door-to-door to remind people to turn in their ballots.

Team Newsom has been contacting voters in seven different languages — English, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, and Vietnamese — via phone, text and door knocks.

The goal is to hit two million door knocks by the end of the day.

“We tried to create a surround sound,” the adviser said, “a multi-layered approach that meets voters wherever they are.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team is confident of victory – not just because Democrats have continued to dominate the early ballots cast, but because they expect to see a second blue wave in the “aftercount.”

Newsom Campaign Manager Juan Rodriguez uses the analogy of an accordion shape to describe the flow of results.

Just after 8:01 p.m. local time (11:01 p.m. ET), he is expecting to see that first blue wave, which will reflect the Democrats dominance of the early ballots cast, but then a redder, more conservative wave as the Election Day votes come in, and then another big blue wave in the ballots that arrive after Election Day. (Ballots that could have been postmarked today, but can arrive for up to seven days). 

Rodriguez pointed to the size of the “aftercount” in 2018, saying 36% of the total ballots cast in that election arrived in the “aftercount.”

Former President Trump claimed that perfectly legal 2020 ballots that arrived after Election Day were somehow fraudulent. Now in this recall election, could GOP candidate Larry Elder follow that playbook in California?

As President Biden returns to the White House tonight after the first West Coast visit of his presidency, aides say he has an air of confidence over what top Democrats are seeing in California.

Aboard Air Force One, advisers briefed Biden on what they believe has been remarkably strong turnout for Democrats in today’s recall election.

When Biden said at a rally last night that the “eyes of the nation are on California,” he meant it – not only for Gov. Gavin Newsom, but also on the Covid-19 mandates he is imposing from the White House.

While there may be limits to the sweeping national lessons that can be drawn from the outcome in California, White House advisers believe a strong showing could give Democrats and independents a stronger sense of confidence at the administration’s fights over mask-wearing, vaccines and more. 

Biden has increasingly been sharpening his challenge and criticism of Republican governors across the country.

The outcome tonight, advisers said, will put him in an even stronger position.

“California won’t end the Covid debate,” a White House adviser tells CNN, “but it could be a tremendous boost for what Democrats are trying to do.”

At one polling location in Huntington Beach in Orange County, California, the line of voters wrapped around the block to decide whether to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom from office, CNN’s Stephanie Elam reported.

“You see this long line of people, it’s only gotten longer as people finished up their workday and they’ve shown up here. Orange County is known for being a Republican stronghold. You’ve got a lot of Republican voters here, and many of the people that I’ve spoken to said that they wanted to make sure that their vote was counted, and that is why they’re showing up to do this in person,” Elam said, reporting from Huntington Beach.

Elam noted that she spoke with people who thought Newsom had done “an awful job.”

“They want him out of office. We talked to one woman who said that this is a giant waste of time because they have an election just next year for the governor’s office,” Elam continued.

Another woman told Elam she thought the special election is a good idea because it will make certain that elected leaders will be held accountable regardless of which way the election goes.

“As you can see, there’s a lot of activity in Orange County, and obviously Republicans are hoping that this will break their way in a county that has traditionally gone for the Republicans, but not always as demographics have changed here in Orange County,” Elam told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Watch here:

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A senior aide of GOP candidate Larry Elder disagreed with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom camp’s characterization of Election Day turnout, saying they believed it was strong.

The aide wouldn’t discuss the campaign’s internal targets, but said, “We haven’t had a recall election here in 18 years. I think what everybody is modeling is off.”

The aide predicted Elder would turn in a strong performance with independents. 

The aide also said Elder’s staff — which is gathered in a back room at the Hilton in Costa Mesa, where he will speak tonight — expects early returns to show Newsom well ahead, but said Elder would gain ground as the night wears on and votes cast on Election Day rather than early votes are counted.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team is watching to break voter turnout records for statewide special election, a top adviser told CNN. 

“Team Newsom thinks we could be headed for a strong turnout,” a top adviser said.

According to data from the California Secretary of State, the 2003 recall had the highest turnout of a statewide special election in the state’s history at 61%.

“We’re on pace to break that,” the Newsom adviser said. Newsom’s team said it is “confident and the blue tide keeps rising.” 

On last minute factors pushing Newsom over the finish line, “We’re buoyed by Biden’s visit.” 

There are more voters now than there were in 2003. Today there are 22 million active voters in California compared to 15 million in 2003.

The confidence that California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team projected on Monday has not waned as Election Day votes come in, according to conversations with Newsom advisers, signaling the team is not seeing a surge in Republican turnout that would be able to overcome their early vote lead.

Newsom’s operatives on the ground have also not reported long lines in Republican strongholds across the state, one adviser said.

Obviously, as the adviser noted, even as the “Election Day vote does not appear to be on fire,” it is somewhat too “early to say” definitively.

California voters, who have endured raging wildfires, a historic drought and an ongoing pandemic, will decide Tuesday whether they want to remove from office Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s led the nation’s most populous state for the past two-and-a-half years.

Polls are set to close in a little over an hour at 8 p.m. PT (11 p.m. ET).

In order to hold onto his job, Newsom — first elected in 2018 — needs a majority of voters to have voted “no” on the first ballot question about whether they want to oust him. Newsom’s operation has largely been a turnout, rather than a persuasion, campaign.

With registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans in the state by nearly 2 to 1, his biggest hurdle has been getting them engaged in an off-year election amid the disruptions of the pandemic.

There were good signs for Newsom on that front in recent days, with Democrats casting pre-election ballots at a higher rate than their registration in the state, but Republicans have been counting on their voters showing up on Election Day to vote in person.

Only if a majority votes “yes” to remove Newsom does the second ballot come into play, determining who will serve as California’s governor through the end of Newsom’s term in January 2023. Voters have been asked to choose from a list of 46 candidates who qualified to have their name listed in the race to replace Newsom.

Why the race also matters on the national level: National Democrats are closely watching this race — the first major political contest since Democrats took full control of Washington last year — as a test of the party’s messaging on the pandemic ahead of next year’s midterms.

“The eyes of the nation are on California,” President Joe Biden said when rallying for Newsom in Long Beach on Monday.

How hard would it be for Gov. Gavin Newsom to lose tonight’s special election?

“It would simply take a giant revolt among California Democrats,” CNN’s John King said, going on to describe the political context in the state ahead of today’s recall election.

“Let’s go back to the history. 2018 Gavin Newsom wins the election with 62% of the vote. California is an overwhelmingly blue state. Fast forward to 2020 and the presidential election…  Joe Biden wins by an even greater percentage, 63.5% to 34% for Donald Trump. California even more voter registration trending even more in favor of the Democrats,” King explained. “Not only would all the Republicans have to turn out and vote against him, a lot of Democrats would have to vote against him or stay home. It’s that perfect storm of a revolt among Democrats that it would take. The polling suggests that won’t happen, but we will be counting votes in a little while.”

King told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that populous counties are the ones to watch tonight to get an early glimpse on which direction the results will go in.

He pointed to Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the state that has a “huge part of the Democratic base.”

“It will tell us, are Latinos voting? What is the percentage? How many Democrats are saying, ‘Sorry, governor, we want to recall you.’ The largest county in the state will give us a good glimpse of that,” he said.

The second largest county, San Diego, is also one to watch. “Republicans or recall supporters need to flood out here,” King explained.

Orange County is another key county to pay attention, “recall supporters need an overwhelming turnout here. If this is blue tonight, Gavin Newsom will stay in his term as governor.”

Smaller red counties are areas where recall candidates would need to gain traction, King said.

“You see all these red counties? Most of them don’t have a lot of people in them. Only two, only two of the top ten in terms of population counties in California, were red back in the last governor’s race. So the smaller counties, it’s just like the Trump election in 2020, not only do the recall supporters have to win these smaller red counties, the turnout has to be overwhelming,” he explained.

Watch John King’s Magic Wall analysis here:

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The recall effort against California Gov. Gavin Newsom is fueled by discontent over the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, economic woes and climate change, Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN on Tuesday.

“What you’re seeing in California and all over this country is a lot of anger and frustration,” Sanders said, speaking with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

“We’re dealing with Covid, we’re dealing with economic problems, we’re dealing with climate change,” he said.

Sanders went on to say he believed it was unlikely that Republicans would prevail in their effort to oust Newsom in a state which reliably votes blue.

“I think in California the governor has done his best, done well and I think the people will respond accordingly,” he said.

“The truth is that California does not need a right-wing governor, Republican governor,” Sanders continued. “Historically [California has] been in recent years one of the most progressive states in the United States and I think the people want it to stay that way.”

About 45% of the electorate says Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policies on the pandemic have been about right, with about one-third calling his policies too strict and the remainder saying they’re not strict enough. 

There’s broad support for Covid-19 mitigation measures, with more than six in 10 saying that getting vaccinated is more of a public health responsibility than it is a personal choice. Most California Republicans see vaccination as a personal choice, while most Democrats see it as a public health responsibility. 

Californians are close to evenly split on the current state of California’s economy, with about half calling it good or excellent, and the rest calling it not so good or poor. Voters take a more negative view about the costs of living in their own part of California, with around six in 10 saying that those costs are at least somewhat unmanageable. 

Note: The California CNN Exit Poll is a combination of in-person interviews with Election Day voters and telephone and online polls measuring the views of absentee by-mail and early voters. It was conducted by Edison Research on behalf of the National Election Pool.

In-person interviews on Election Day were conducted at a random sample of 30 California polling locations among 2,356 Election Day voters. The results also include 1,352 interviews with early and absentee voters conducted by phone, online or by text. Results for the full sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups. 

There are about a hundred people lined up to vote at a polling location in Huntington Beach in Orange County, California, CNN’s Stephanie Elam reported.

You cannot underestimate how important Orange County is in the gubernatorial recall election, she said.

There are about 1.8 million active voters here. The demographics have changed. This county use to be strongly Republican, but now it’s a 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans. Overall, Republicans will be keeping their eye on this county.

There are a lot of voters, and if Republicans turn out, they could have a shot at winning the gubernatorial race, Elam reported.

However, there still is an uphill battle because most of the voters in California are Democratic.

Watch Stephanie Elam’s reporting from the scene:

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For more from our reporters in the field, and to watch Elam’s full @CNN’s Instagram story, click here

Just hours away from California polls closing, voters had a lot to say about the special election that will determine the fate of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

CNN’s Josh Campbell spoke to a group of California residents in San Francisco and asked their thoughts on the election and here’s what they had to say:

Michelle Glauser said that she doesn’t think the election is necessary. “I went ahead and supported Gavin Newson staying in, and I hope that’s what the results will be,” she told Campbell.

“I have family out of state and I feel that Gavin Newsom has done a better job than other states. We’ve been strict about how we handle it (Covid-19) and I think that’s been a good thing,” Glauser said.

Tia Paneet shared similar sentiments.

“I’m against recalling Gavin Newsom. As a nurse still fighting Covid right now, it kind of scares me that they would want to take away some of these mask mandates and requirements for vaccinations. So that’s one of the big reasons,” Paneet said. “I’m also pro-choice and that kind of scares me if we’re going to turn back the clock.”

Andrea Arteaga supports removing Newsom from office, citing Covid-19 mandates.

“I think we need a change of leadership. I didn’t like the mandates. I believe they were really tyrannical. They went against every right we have. I believe us as individuals — we have the right to decide whether to cover our face, whether to do business, and the mandates he put in place were a total overreach,” Arteaga said.
“I think most people, right now, are voting for [Larry] Elder. While I don’t share all the same views as him, he’s standing up for the most important things for me, which is the right to govern our own body,” Arteaga added.

Polls in California are set to close at 8 p.m. PT — or 11 p.m. ET.

California State Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat who lost his seat in California in a recall election before winning it back, is working to raise the constitutional bar in the state.

“The recalls are like trick plays like you would see in sports,” said Newman, speaking to CNN today. “If you can’t win a regular election, you go to the recall card.”

Newman won the 29th District seat in 2016 but lost it in a recall in 2018. He won back the seat in the 2020 election.

“We need to draft legislation that will keep special interests and money from exploiting the recall laws,” said Newman.

Newman wants to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would raise California’s threshold for the percentage of signatures needed to hold a recall of elected officials.

State rules for recall petitions currently require signatures of at least 12% of the total number of votes most recently cast for state executive officials, such as the governor, and 20% for legislators and judges.

A different recall reform bill Newman has authored was passed by the California legislature and is awaiting the signature of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is facing a recall now. The law would put limits on paying signature gatherers for petitions.

The coronavirus pandemic remains at the top of voters’ minds, with about one-third saying it’s the biggest issue for the state, according to a California exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.

That’s followed by just over one-fifth saying homelessness, one in six saying the economy and wildfires, respectively, and slightly under one-tenth saying crime.

Concerns vary across partisan lines: more than four in 10 Democrats call coronavirus their top issue, while only about one-fifth of Republicans say the same. On the flip side, Republicans are more than three times as likely as Democrats to name the economy as their top concern. 

Voters have mixed outlooks on the pandemic’s course in California, with about four in 10 saying the situation is getting better, three in 10 that it remains about the same, and just under one-quarter that it’s worsening. 

Women make up slightly more than half the electorate in the California recall, just as they did in the 2020 presidential election and the 2018 gubernatorial race. White majorities narrowly make up the majority of the electorate, the exit poll data finds, with the remainder people of color. In 2020 exit polling, about half the electorate was White; in 2018, it was 63%. 

Note: The California CNN Exit Poll is a combination of in-person interviews with Election Day voters and telephone and online polls measuring the views of absentee by-mail and early voters. It was conducted by Edison Research on behalf of the National Election Pool.

In-person interviews on Election Day were conducted at a random sample of 30 California polling locations among 2,356 Election Day voters. The results also include 1,352 interviews with early and absentee voters conducted by phone, online or by text. Results for the full sample have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups. 

CNN’s David Chalian has more:

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Polls in California are set to close at 8 p.m. PT — or 11 p.m. ET — tonight. CNN’s National Political Reporter Maeve Reston is covering the race and says the first drop of ballots, from early voting, will come right after the polls close.

“We already know what a lot of those are. We know they’ll be heavily Democratic. A lot of those people are Democrats who voted early,” she explained.

After this “blue drop,” you’ll see more Republican votes as in-person ballots come in, Reston said.

California is famous for taking forever to count because there are just so many ballots to be counted. People are expecting this to be a decently high turnout election — even though it’s a special election in the middle of September.

Also remember, there will be the “after count,” which includes the mail-in ballots that were stamped on Election Day, but are received up to seven days after the election. In some recent elections, as much as a third of the total ballots cast were counted in that after count.

So be ready for:

Watch more from Reston:

A colorful cast of more than 40 candidates from all political persuasions are vying to replace Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in California’s recall election, but only a handful have managed to break through the pack.

If a majority of California voters vote “yes” to the recall, Newsom will be out of office and the top vote-getter on the ballot’s second question – about who should replace Newsom – will take over.

These are some of Newsom’s most notable challengers:

Read more about the candidates here.

The internet is full of 101s, FAQs and explainers about what’s going on with the California gubernatorial recall election, in which voting concludes today. Polls are set to close across the state at 8 p.m. PT (11 p.m. ET).

It’s a bizarre situation in which a deep blue state could throw out its Democratic governor and replace him with a conservative talk show host in a proxy fight over how Covid-19 and other issues – like homelessness – have been handled.

So I’ll put the bottom line at the top of this story:

If Gov. Gavin Newsom survives this recall effort, it will raise serious questions about whether the recall system, expensive and distracting, should be reformed.

If Newsom is removed from office, it will be an off-the-charts earthquake that shakes Democrats in every part of this country, who could view this California fight as a test of their national message of responsible Covid-19 restrictions and good governance over personal freedom.

This is happening because Newsom’s GOP opponents, early this year, sensed weakness in Newsom over Covid-19 restrictions and after a moment of hypocrisy when he was photographed out at a fancy dinner while Californians were being told to stay in.

They did it by utilizing the often-attempted recall provision in the state’s Constitution to gather more than 1.5 million signatures and force a recall, although that’s a small portion of the more than 12.4 million who voted in the 2018 governor’s race.

The campaign started when the signatures were certified in July, triggering a recall campaign.

Voting has been going for weeks. Every voter in the state was sent a ballot to return by mail, so people have been voting for a month. There’s also in-person voting today.

Voters will be asked two questions: 1) Should Newsom be recalled? and 2) If so, who should replace him? He does not appear as an option on the second question.

What Democrats are telling supporters. They have not fielded a sanctioned party alternative, instead going all-in on encouraging people to oppose the recall.

What Republicans are telling supporters. There are scores of people running on question two, but Republicans, if polls are accurate, have migrated to the radio talk show host Larry Elder, who opposes most Covid-19 restrictions.

Delta changed the course of the election. Since the recall took off earlier this year, the Delta variant has flared in the US, shifting public opinion on Newsom’s handling of the virus.

Democrats sought to nationalize the race. They wanted to focus voters on their frustrations with the national GOP and not Newsom.

Republicans are helping them. They’ve laid groundwork to argue, without evidence, the result is flawed, just like they did with the 2020 presidential election. This is becoming a pattern. It is not OK.

Read the full article here.

For some 18-year-olds, today’s California recall election will be an opportunity to cast a ballot for the first time.

On both sides of the aisle, newly-eligible voters told CNN they were eager to participate in the special election to decide Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fate.

For her part, Camille Colker was frustrated when she missed the ability to vote in the 2020 presidential election by just two days.

So when Colker — who turned 18 on Nov. 5, 2020 — received her mail-in ballot for the recall, she jumped at the opportunity to return it.

Colker voted “no” on the recall, citing environmental justice, pandemic response and misinformation as the issues “at stake,” in Tuesday’s election.

“I felt excited to be voting, but also incredibly pressured,” Colker said, given what she described as the seriousness of each of these issues.

Likewise, Victoria DaSilva, who turned 18 in March, said she was “excited there was an opportunity” to vote “so soon,” as she thought she would have to wait until the 2022 midterms to cast her first ballot.

“I was so happy that I was able to finally participate in government because I just feel like it’s so important to be an active member in our government,” said DaSilva, who is from Manhattan Beach and an incoming freshman at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). “Even though it was just one question, I was glad to be able to make my voice count a little bit.”

DaSilva, who voted “no” on the recall and returned her ballot Monday, said she has always “taken for granted” living in a Democratic state and worries that Tuesday’s election “could turn that around.”

Meanwhile, Jerri Lopez, who turned 18 in May, said voting in the recall election was “an awesome experience.”

“I couldn’t vote in this past presidential election, which really bummed me out, so I was thrilled knowing I could vote in the recall,” said Lopez, a San Diego native and freshman at University of Southern California. 

Lopez voted “yes” to recall Newsom and told CNN that “overall unity in California is at stake in this recall.”

She said she worries about “strict” mask mandates, vaccine mandates and “potentially another shut down in regards to Covid” if Newsom were to stay in power. 

Lopez voted to replace Newsom with Republican candidate Larry Elder. 

And while Marin Ruiz, who is 19, voted for the first time in the 2020 presidential election, she said the recall provided her with “the most exposure and first-hand experience” she’s had so far to the Republican Party. 

“This recall feels more real to me personally, just because I feel like my vote counts more than in a presidential election. It literally hits closer to home,” Ruiz, who is the president of the University of Southern California College Republicans, told CNN. 

“Californians have experienced the effect of policies first hand during the past year,” Ruiz said, adding that unemployment, crime rates, school closings and mask mandates are all issues at stake in the recall.

Last weekend, Ruiz knocked on doors to get out the vote in San Bernardino, California, where she met Elder.

CNN’s Josh Campbell is inside San Francisco City Hall, one of the voting locations and ballot processing centers.

In the voting center, voters can ask questions and drop off their ballot in person. Right now, the area where voters line up is empty. Authorities say it’s likely because of two reasons:

In the ballot processing center, the ballot counting is already underway. The ballots are coming in from the postal service from precincts across the city. This part of California, around San Francisco and the Bay area, is very blue. President Biden won by a wide margin and Gov. Gavin Newsom had a comfortable lead in last election. Newsom is from the Bay area. Democratic consultants say they’re focusing on the turnout to offset red surges in other regions.

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For more from our reporters in the field, and to watch Josh Campbell’s @CNN’s Instagram story, click here.

According to updated data from Edison Research, more than 9.1 million pre-election ballots have been cast in the California recall.

Total ballots cast as of Sept. 13 is 9,109,956.

That’s about 51% of the total votes cast in the state in 2020.

About 52% of the ballots for which Edison has data on party were cast by registered Democrats and 26% were cast by registered Republicans.

CNN’s National Political Reporter Maeve Reston is in California ahead of today’s special election to decide whether to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

She’s answering some readers’ most-asked questions — here’s how she puts it:

Is California the only state to have gubernatorial recalls?

No, many other states do as well, but they all have very different rules. The rules in California are very quirky. The proponents of the recall had to gather 1.4 million signatures last year, and they got a huge boost from a judge who gave them four extra months to collect the signatures. At the time, there was a lot of anger at Newsom for what a lot of people thought were shifting Covid-19 regulations and frustration about his closure of the beaches and school.

California does have a lower bar for recalls than other states. There are some people who are looking to change those rules after all of this is over. 

Are the polls predicting that Newsom will be recalled?

Newsom is looking safer in a recent poll. Of course, we don’t know until all the votes are counted tonight. It was tight in late July and early August — It looked like it was like a 49-51 split on the recall.

Since then, Newsom’s team plunged millions and millions of dollars into ads and their ground game. And now they’re feeling safer. The most recent polls show Newsom having a much more comfortable lead on the recall question, with more voters saying no to the recall.

But it comes down to turnout. Republicans are hoping for a really high turnout on Election Day.

A lot of the ballots are already in. About 8.4 million ballots have been mailed in. A lot of those ballots have been from Democrats so far. We expect that because these days Republicans prefer to vote in person, particularly because of some of the concerns that former President Trump raised about mail-in ballots. So, we’ll have to see where that lands tonight.

Polls close at 8 p.m. PT.

How did this start in the first place?

A small group of conservatives got this going early last year because of Newsom’s positions on immigration, taxes, the death penalty and other issues.

But then, as Covid-19 restrictions went into effect, things really started to heat up. Parents, business owners and restaurant owners were getting really frustrated with Newsom’s Covid rules.

Then he made an infamous visit to The French Laundry, an exclusive restaurant in Napa Valley. He was unmasked at a birthday party being held for a lobbyist. At the time, Newsom had been telling Californians to stay home, wear a mask and avoid large gatherings, and some viewed this as hypocrisy.

Watch more from Reston:

With all eyes turning to California on Tuesday to see whether Gov. Gavin Newsom is recalled, a few places within the Golden State could offer some early clues — not only about whether the Democratic governor can keep his job — but also what the political climate might look like next year in a state where Republicans picked up four House seats in 2020.

Republicans’ best scenario for ousting Newsom in this overwhelmingly blue state has always been outsized GOP turnout and low Democratic turnout. That’s because registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.

All of the state’s 22 million registered voters were mailed ballots last month. All counties were also required to make one or more early voting locations available for at least four days beginning the Saturday before the election, and many kept them open longer.

So there’s already significant data about who’s casting votes. Republicans are hoping for a massive Election Day turnout that could tip the scales.

But so far, Democrats have been more engaged than expected. About 53% of ballots cast so far have been from registered Democrats and 25% from registered Republicans, according to Political Data Inc., a firm that does work for Democratic candidates, progressive organizations and nonpartisan campaigns. That means Democrats are still outperforming their registration level in the state.

But to see whether that turnout advantage holds (and translates into Newsom’s survival), here are some specific places to watch on Tuesday.

The Big Blue areas where Democrats must perform One-time GOP strongholds Flipped districts The Central Valley LA County’s and Imperial County’s Latino communities

Read more about each place here.

Te recall gathered steam late last year at a time when many Californians were frustrated with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s restrictive response to the pandemic and what some viewed as erratic rules and regulations for businesses and restaurants.

The major turning point for recall organizers came in November when Newsom attended a friend’s birthday party at a lavish French restaurant in Napa Valley at a time when he was urging Californians to stay home and avoid large gatherings with multiple households.

Newsom apologized, calling the dinner “a bad mistake,” but it was widely perceived as hypocritical and grossly out of touch when many Californians were struggling.

Both fundraising and signature petition-gathering accelerated for recall proponents, who had to gather 1,495,709 valid petition signatures to qualify (the equivalent of 12% of the votes cast for the office of governor in 2018).

At that opportune time for Republicans in mid-November, a judge extended the deadline for recall supporters to collect signatures by four months. Ultimately, they easily surpassed the total needed for the recall to qualify.

After a series of procedural steps — including the verification of the signatures on the petitions by county election officials — the state’s lieutenant governor called the election for Sept. 14.

The state’s Department of Finance has estimated the cost will be $276 million.

Polls suggest California voters are poised to defeat an effort to recall the state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom

The polls could be wrong or change fast. At present, though, their findings are entirely unremarkable. California has nearly twice as many registered Democrats as registered Republicans. Newsom was elected by almost 24 percentage points in 2018. With one notable exception, in 2003, every previous attempt to recall a California governor has failed.

But this is the era of the Big Lie.

Influenced by former President Donald Trump’s serial lying about the 2020 election he lost, many Republican voters are now suspicious, for no good reason, about the integrity of American elections in general. And prominent Republicans know how to rile up the crowd they created.

With Tuesday’s Election Day fast approaching, Trump and other right-wing figures, including top Newsom replacement candidate Larry Elder, have started to lay the groundwork to baselessly dismiss a potential Newsom victory as a product of Democratic cheating.

The rhetoric from Trump and Elder mirrors what happened in the weeks leading up to Election Day 2020, when Trump and his allies relentlessly pushed the lie that Democrats could not possibly beat him in an election that wasn’t “rigged.” And it benefits from years of additional dishonesty, by Trump and others, portraying California as a cesspool of mass illegal voting.

In a Newsmax television interview last Tuesday, Trump called the California recall “probably rigged.” Trump escalated his dishonesty in a written statement on Monday, saying: “Does anybody really believe the California Recall Election isn’t rigged? Millions and millions of Mail-In Ballots will make this just another giant Election Scam, no different, but less blatant, than the 2020 Presidential Election Scam!”

Elder’s campaign website now features a link to a website that makes baseless and vague assertions of fraud in the recall and urges residents to sign a petition “demanding a special session of the California legislature to investigate and ameliorate the twisted results of this 2021 Recall Election of Governor Gavin Newsom.” Again, because Election Day hadn’t arrived yet, there were not yet any results at all at the time Elder’s campaign began promoting this petition, let alone “twisted” results.

Elder, prompted by a Fox News host, said Monday that he is “worried about fraud,” and he promoted the “election integrity project” featured on his website. And in a Monday interview with Jacob Soboroff, an NBC News and MSNBC correspondent, Elder would not commit to accepting the result of the election, saying instead that “we all ought to be looking at election integrity.”

Elder made similar remarks last week. At a campaign event last Wednesday, Elder said, “We’ve heard a lot of things that have been suspicious so far,” declared that “they’re gonna cheat, we know that,” and promised to file lawsuits. Earlier in the day, he told reporters, “I believe that there might very well be shenanigans, as it were in the 2020 election.” (Elder did say both times that so many voters are angry at the situation under Newsom that the recall will succeed anyway.)

Read more about claims from others here.

The rules of the California gubernatorial recall are many, detailed and confusing, but the bottom line is that if any less than half of the voters who take part oppose the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, he’ll be out of office.

The top vote-getter of the 46 people running to replace Newsom, no matter how few votes that person gets, will be in.

Most of the candidates vying to replace Newsom are Republicans and several have gotten more attention than others.

Larry Elder is a conservative radio host and would be the state’s first Black governor. But he’s run into some major scrutiny for previous comments about women and has been accused of domestic violence and brandishing a gun in 2015. He denies the allegation made by his then-fiancée and former employee Alexandra Datig.

Businessman John Cox, who lost to Newsom in the 2018 election, has been touring the state with a Kodiak bear. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, also a Republican, has criticized Elder and said he would be more supportive of women during a recent debate. Neither Elder, Newsom, nor Caitlyn Jenner, the reality TV star and former Olympian, went to the debate last month.

Former Congressman Doug Ose, who was one of the 46 candidates who had qualified for the recall ballot, dropped out of the race after he was treated for a heart attack. He said in a statement that he is expecting a full recovery but ended his campaign because he needs to focus on rehabilitation. He has endorsed Assemblyman Kevin Kiley.

Voters in California are heading to the polls to decide whether to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom today.

Here’s what to know about the election:

California voters are heading to the polls today to decide whether to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Polls and ballot return data so far show the Democratic governor in a strong position to stay in power in the nation’s largest Democratic state.

But if a majority of Californians vote to remove Newsom, the second question on the ballot will determine who replaces him. Republican talk radio host Larry Elder is running away with the contest, according to the same polls.

Republicans had hoped a recall election in deep-blue California would reveal a national playbook on how to run against Democratic overreach in combating the coronavirus pandemic.

Instead, if polls are accurate, it could have the opposite effect – revealing broad public support for measures like the vaccine mandates Newsom has imposed on teachers and health care workers. Newsom has not only run toward strict coronavirus measures, he has made them central to his closing argument to voters and used Elder’s pledge to roll back the rules against the Republican gubernatorial hopeful.

Other Democrats on the ballot this year, including New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, have also embraced vaccine mandates.

Though all three are running in blue states, their approach showcases the increasing belief among some Democrats that the tide of public sentiment is turning against Republicans who are advocating for the personal rights and choices of those whose refusal to get vaccinated is helping prolong the pandemic.

If Newsom wins by a healthy margin, it could strengthen Democrats’ belief that tough measures intended to stop the spread of Covid-19 will pay off this year and in next year’s midterm election.

If California Gov. Gavin Newsom is able to keep his job and avoid a recall, he could have Latino voters to thank for it.

A mix of Democratic campaigns, super PACs and organizations throughout the predominantly blue state have been working for weeks to turnout Latino voters for the September 14 recall election, fighting a mix of apathy, anger and confusion in their effort to get what has been a reliable voting bloc for the party to come out for an off-year election.

Latino voters find themselves at the intersection of both the recall and the issue that partially spurred the effort — the coronavirus pandemic and Newsom’s stringent response to it. A series of studies have found Latinos have been the demographic group most adversely impacted by the coronavirus in the state.

“You can’t win California without reaching out to Latinos, so from the get-go there was an effort to connect with Latinos and Latino leaders to emphasize how important the recall was,” said Angelica Salas, the head of CHIRLA Action Fund, an immigrant rights organization that has been working against recalling Newsom. “We are doing everything in our power to defeat this recall.”

Salas, whose organization has had over 20 volunteers knocking doors nearly every day since early August, said her organizers have found some people unsure about why they are having to vote in a nontraditional election year — along with some apathy about the effort.

It’s a problem for Newsom: Given California’s overwhelming Democratic lean, Republicans will need both boosted turnout from their side and depressed turnout from traditionally Democratic voters to have a chance to oust the first-term governor. If the recall passes, voters will be asked on the same ballot to pick from a sweep of Newsom challengers, including Republican Larry Elder, a leading contender on the right who has made fighting Newsom’s coronavirus pandemic orders central to his campaign.

Newsom himself has looked to boost Latino turnout ahead of the recall election, telling Latino leaders on Thursday that echoes of Prop 187 — the now-void 1994 California proposition that barred undocumented immigrants from using a series of public services — is on the ballot with him.

“You brought up Prop 187 — the xenophobia, the nativism. That’s on the ballot September 14,” Newsom said. “I never thought we’d have to live that again.”

Read more about the California recall and Latino voters here.

Polls have opened in California where voters will now decide whether to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. PST (which is 10 a.m. until 11 p.m. ET) on Election Day.

Voters will be asked two questions on the recall ballot:

If a majority vote “yes” on the first question, Newsom is removed from office and the top candidate on the second question takes over, even if that person receives only a fraction of the vote. If a majority votes against recalling Newsom, he keeps his job and the results of the second question are irrelevant.

There are no other initiatives or referenda on the ballot.

Millions of voters have already cast their ballots – all registered voters in the state were mailed one – and so far, Democrats have outpaced their registration advantage in the overwhelmingly blue state. But Republicans are counting on doing better on Election Day, because of their party’s preference for voting in-person.

There have been 55 aimed at California governors since 1913. But the one against Gavin Newsom is only the second attempt to recall a sitting governor in California history to reach the ballot after voters recalled Gray Davis, a Democrat, in 2003 and replaced him with Arnold Schwarzenegger, a movie star and the state’s most recent Republican leader.

None of the would-be Newsom replacements have caught fire like Schwarzenegger did in 2003, when 55% of voters supported the recall and 48% selected Schwarzenegger.

What’s different today? Most of the voting will be done by mail. In fact, every registered voter was sent a ballot in the mail. That could give Democrats an advantage since 22 million ballots have been mailed out.

Early returns are coming more from Democrats, but they outnumber Republicans 2-1 in the state and Republicans may be waiting to vote on Election Day.

Another advantage for Newsom is that California’s fundraising rules allow him to raise unlimited funds, treating the recall as a ballot question. But the candidates running to replace him are treated as candidates and can raise far less.

California voters will be asked just two questions on the recall ballot: First, “yes” or “no” on whether they want to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Second, they will be asked to select from a list of candidates from all parties who wish to replace him. Forty-six contenders have qualified for the ballot, but there is no well-known Democrat vying to replace him. (Newsom is not allowed to run as a replacement candidate).

If a majority vote “yes” on the first question, Newsom is removed from office and the top candidate on the second question takes over, even if that person receives only a fraction of the vote. If a majority votes against recalling Newsom, he keeps his job and the results of the second question are irrelevant. There are no other initiatives or referenda on the ballot.

When would a new governor take office if Newsom is recalled? County officials have up to 30 days after the election to finish tallying the vote count. If the recall of Newsom is successful, the secretary of state would certify the results on the 38th day after the election and the new governor would take the oath of office.

The new governor would serve the remainder of Newsom’s term through Jan. 2, 2023. The state’s recall mechanism has been part of the law since 1911. But in that time, only one governor was successfully recalled: Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was ousted in 2003 and replaced by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Here’s a look at how the process works: