(1) Existing provisions of the California Constitution and statute authorize the recall of state officers. Each section of a recall petition is required to be filed with the elections official of the county for which it was circulated. Existing law requires the elections official to report to the Secretary of State, 30 days after a recall has been initiated and every 30 days thereafter, the number of signatures submitted on the recall petition sections, the number of valid signatures, and related information. Upon the submission of a section of a recall petition, if fewer than 500 signatures are submitted to the elections official, the elections official is required to count the number of signatures and submit those results to the Secretary of State. If 500 or more signatures are submitted to the elections official, the elections official may verify, using a random sampling technique, either 3% of the signatures submitted or 500 signatures, whichever is less, and report the results of that verification to the Secretary of State.

This bill would provide that if 500 or more signatures are submitted to the elections official, the elections official may verify, using a random sampling technique, either 3% of the signatures submitted or 500 signatures, whichever is greater.

(2) Under existing law, if a vacancy occurs in office after a recall petition is filed against the vacating officer, the recall elections is required to proceed. The vacancy in that office is required to be filled as provided by law, but a person appointed to fill the vacancy holds office only until a successor is selected and qualifies for that office.

This bill would provide that upon the occurrence of a vacancy, the elections official for each county in which a section of the recall petition has been filed is required to immediately verify the signatures on the petition submitted to the elections official as of the date of the vacancy. If the elections official verifies that a sufficient number of signatures were filed as of the date of the vacancy, the recall election would be required to proceed. If the elections official verifies that an insufficient number of signatures, or no signatures, were filed as of the date of the vacancy, the recall election would not proceed and the vacancy in the office that is the subject of the recall election would be filled as otherwise provided by law. The bill would delete the requirement that a person appointed to fill the vacancy holds office only until a successor is selected and instead would prohibit a person who was subject to a recall petition from being appointed to fill the vacancy in the office that he or she vacated or to fill any other vacancy in office on the same governing board for the duration of the term of office of the vacated seat.