Live updates: California goes to the polls in the Gov. Gavin Newsom recall election

After a year of debate that laid bare divisions in America’s most populous state, Californians on Tuesday will decide whether Gov. Gavin Newsom keeps his job, or if the Golden State tilts in a conservative direction.

Newsom ended his campaign to stay in office in a recall election with a final push Monday from President Joe Biden, who warned that the outcome of the contest could shape the country’s direction on the pandemic, reproductive rights and the battle to slow climate change.

The Democrat who defeated Republican President Donald Trump less than a year ago said that the issues that defined the 2020 race had been resurrected in California, with potentially disastrous results if Newsom is removed in the election that ends Tuesday.

“The eyes of the nation are on California,” he warned. The recall vote is “going to reverberate around the nation and ... around the world.”

Traffic was steady at polling stations throughout the Sacramento region, but no disruptions or major protests had been reported by early afternoon.

Polling stations open Tuesday

A quiet line of a dozen or so people had formed outside The California Museum by 10 a.m., all waiting to enter the building to cast their votes.

Election official Luis Marrero estimated that about 100 people had already filtered in and out of the center by mid-morning. Everything was running smoothly, Marrero said, albeit a little slow.

Some had to register to vote, others needed assistance changing their address. So far, no problems.

“I think we’re doing really good,” said Marrero, who’s been working the polls all week. “People have been really nice.”

Marrero was also assisting those dropping off their mail-in ballots toward the pink box sitting on a table outside the museum.

Famiza Yates, 41, said she would have mailed in her ballot, but her voter registration status had recently become inactive. After changing it to an active status online, she headed to the polls this morning in support of Newsom.

“I don’t feel like he screwed up enough to be recalled,” Yates said. “I want to make sure I vote to make sure my decision can count.”

Mark Tankersley, a Democrat from Roseville, dropped his ballot off Tuesday morning at the Roseville City Clerk’s office, but not out of concern about voter fraud.

“It’s just procrastination,” he said, laughing.

He declined to say how he voted, but he said the Democrats need to better control their spending, and he’s frustrated gas taxes are so high.

As for Newsom’s handling of the pandemic, he said, “It was good in the beginning. Now it’s over the top.”

Voter traffic was light at the clerk’s office where the drop off box sat inside. Aside from Tankersley, only a couple of others walked up to put their ballots in it from 10 to 10:15 am.

— Hannah Wiley and Ryan Sabalow, The Sacramento Bee

Voter turnout numbers

As of 12:16 p.m., 8.7 million votes had been recorded, according to the firm Political Data Inc. Of those, 4.5 million were from Democrats, 2.2 million from Republicans and the rest from Independents or other parties.

Monday saw the “biggest single-day report” of ballots returned at 909,742, the firm’s Vice President Paul Mitchell wrote in an email release. Democrats and Republicans made up 45% and 31% of those votes, respectively.

That’s a slight uptick from the average percentage of Republican votes cast in recent days. But whether those who support the recall can close the turnout gap, Mitchell wrote, depends on in-person voting.

Republicans favor in-person voting more than Democrats, Mitchell noted, and this voting bloc seems to still be motivated by “the lingering effect of the by-mail voter fraud claims in 2020.”

“To make up this huge gap, pro-recall voters will need a massive surge, not just percentages of percentages,” Mitchell concluded.

Mitchell also said it’s still too early to guess a total voter turnout.

“Hearing even this AM from registrars and campaign staff suggests that we aren’t seeing a rush at the polls this morning, and maybe the endgame of this election took some of the excitement out of the race from those earlier most-enthusiastic pro-recall voters,” Mitchell wrote.

— Hannah Wiley, The Sacramento Bee

Kiley votes in Roseville

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, a candidate to replace Newsom, cast his ballot Tuesday morning at the St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Roseville.

Kiley said the fact that Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama and other powerful Democrats campaigned for Newsom is “a sign of desperation.”

“Despite every attempt by our corrupt political class to take power away from the people, the people are still sovereign in this state,” Kiley told reporters. “And the idea of we the people still means something.”

“Simply by having this election today, we have made a very important statement,” he added.

— The Sacramento Bee

‘Distrust’ in El Dorado County

A half-dozen people were lined up outside the Cameron Park Community Center when the doors opened at 7 a.m., said Tom Fennell, a poll worker. A steady stream of voters cast ballots through the morning, usually in and out without five minutes.

“A lot of people still like the tradition of voting on the day of,” Fennell said. “Just be patient.”

But fears of fraud and a rigged election are top of mind for many. Of about a dozen or so people who spoke to a Sacramento Bee reporter outside the vote center before 10:30 a.m., all said they wanted Newsom removed from office.

“Don’t trust the system,” said Kristie Fauci, a Shingle Springs resident who voted for Larry Elder. She said she was concerned about the color of the poll workers shirts — more people wore blue than red.

“It just makes you wonder,” she said.

(Fennell, the poll supervisor, said the shirts were worn by workers representing the local Elks Lodge, whose members were helping people cast ballots.)

“Unfortunately there’s a lot of distrust,” said Travis Tyus, 35, from Placerville. Tyus, who said he previously had COVID-19 and was not vaccinated, criticized Newsom’s pandemic mandates, namely around masks and vaccines. He said he voted for Kevin Kiley, but that he has doubts about the integrity of the election and the powers in Sacramento.

“Part of me doesn’t believe our vote counts,” he said. He repeatedly suggested the election might be fixed by “the elite in office.”

“We want to oust the tyrant,” said Rob Jeremica. He wore a shirt that said “Impeach Talibiden.”

Cynthia Jinkerson, 65, rattled off a list of reasons why Newsom should be removed. Among the grievances he accumulated in his two-and-a-half years in office in Jinkerson’s mind: his criminal justice policies were too forgiving, his immigration stance put people in danger, and his handling of forest management was making wildfires worse.

The Cameron Park resident, who voted for Elder, said everybody she’s talked to agreed that Newsom had to go.

“I’m concerned about them fixing the vote,” she said. “I’m concerned about it not being the will of the people.”Asked if she would believe it if Newsom is declared the winner, she demurred.“I would have a hard time swallowing that.”

— Jason Pohl, The Sacramento Bee

All quiet in Rancho Cordova

A steady, socially distanced line of about two dozen voters waited on the sidewalk outside Rancho Cordova’s voting center, at Koreana Plaza, shortly before 3 p.m.

The center is set up in the lobby of a karaoke bar, KP Karaoke and Dining, adjacent to the bustling KP International Market.

Signs displayed “Vote here” in English, Spanish and Korean. Some grabbed a cart and headed next door into the supermarket after casting their votes.

— Michael McGough, The Sacramento Bee

No issues in Elk Grove

Things had just started slowing down by 12:20 after a busy hour at the CNU Event Center in Elk Grove. Inside, a handful of voters were waiting in line, while two officials outside either directed those with pre-filled ballots toward the pink Sacramento County collection box on the table in front of the doors or pointed those who’d waited to record their votes in-person through the entrance.

Mother-daughter inspector team Cyndi and Nicole Gira said 174 people had shown up to vote in person so far, with around 20 same-day registrations.

“A lot of people are anxious to vote,” Nicole Gira said.

“We’ve been trying to quickly process everybody,” Cyndi Gira added. “The voter turnout is really positive.”

They both reported no issues.

Elk Grove resident Veronika Baltazar said she was a Democrat, but voted to remove Newsom from office. She said the governor’s strict COVID policies harmed businesses and she was disappointed with the levels of homelessness and unemployment in California.

“Sometimes there’s some change that needs to be brought on,” Baltazar said. “I think this year is not necessarily about (being a) Democrat or Republican.”

Baltazar said she voted for Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a Republican who she believes represents “young, fresh ideas.” He’s also a local name, a lawmaker from Rocklin who Baltazar said wants to help solve the homeless crisis and assist businesses trying to bounce back.

Her aunt, Maria Almanza, however, voted to keep Newsom in office. Almanza said she supported Biden, who campaigned for Newsom Monday night.

“I’m a Democrat,” she said.

— Hannah Wiley, The Sacramento Bee

Newsom support in Oak Park

At around noon at the Oak Park Community Center in Sacramento, a steady stream of voters filtered in and out, though not enough for a line to form. Some were dropping off their mail-in ballots, while others went inside to vote in person.

Kate Sutherland, 34, voted no on the recall and selected a Democratic candidate as a backup in case the recall goes through.

“I don’t want a Republican governor,” Sutherland said after voting. “We’ve gotta keep California blue.”

Tezeta Stewartz, 36, agreed. She said she votes in every election but wanted to make sure she voted in this one specifically.

“It seems ridiculous we’re wasting time and money to have another election,” Stewartz said after voting, her dog on a leash by her side. “I have resentment for the folks who put this on the ballot in the first place.”

She voted against the recall.

“(If the recall prevails) I would be afraid for the reversal of things we’ve worked very hard for,” Stewartz said.

Portia, an election inspector, said she had not seen any poll watchers at the location Tuesday.

“We’re happy we’re busy, happy that people are out here voting,” she said.

— Theresa Clift, The Sacramento Bee

Auburn polling station busy

It was much busier at the Placer County Elections Office in Auburn where a steady line of cars, motorcycles and pickups drove up to deposit envelopes in a secure voting box outside. Other voters, many of whom weren’t wearing masks, walked inside to fill out their ballots or drop them off.

Melissa Artacho, a Republican from Newcastle, said she cast her ballot in person inside because she was worried her vote might not get counted otherwise, “given everything that happened over the last year.”

She said she would have preferred poll workers checked IDs and verified the voter is who they said they were before letting them cast ballots.

Despite her concerns, she said she voted to recall Newsom and picked local Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley because he’s a lawmaker, and she felt he would be the most likely to accomplish policy changes she supported.

“He’s smart as a whip,” she said. “He just seems like he has his act together.”

— Ryan Sabalow, The Sacramento Bee

Smooth process in Placerville

Around noon, at the library in Placerville, a line of a dozen people crammed into the lobby to vote in person. About as many — few of them wearing masks — jammed into a small meeting room to cast their ballot.

“Everybody must be voting for a recall,” one man said, remarking about the length of the line.

“Must be a good day!” a woman replied.

Wally Krokosv, a poll inspector at the library, said hundreds of people had funneled in and out of the library by noon. There were no major problems. Krokosv said he encountered many people concerned about the process who have fears of a rigged election.

“I explain the process to them,” he said. “Some of them are relieved and some still have concerns.”

Ashley Young, 72, said that, after the 2020 presidential election, he didn’t trust the mail-in option. He wanted to be sure to vote in person to remove Newsom.

Wildfire prevention was at the top of his list of grievances — smoke still hung in the air from the nearby Caldor Fire. COVID-19 restrictions that shuttered businesses were also a sore spot. And Young said the governor’s infamous dinner at the French Laundry restaurant still stood out as blatant hypocrisy. Young said he voted for Elder.

“He’s calling him out on the different stuff,” Young said, acknowledging some of the criticism Elder himself has faced. “You can pick anyone apart. We’ve all made mistakes.”

— Jason Pohl, The Sacramento Bee

Voting near Newsom’s house

About noon Tuesday, as the governor and his family were in San Francisco, there was a steady stream of voters at Faith Lutheran Church polling place on San Juan Avenue, not far from Newsom’s Fair Oaks home. John Quesada, one of the elections workers there, said there was rush of voters from 7 to 8 a.m., but the number coming to vote in-person stabilized with never more than 10 people waiting in line.

“I will tell you that the voters have been engaged and passionate,” Quesada said.

He said some voters displayed their frustration with their “body language” after learning that the ballots are collected and counted somewhere else. Quesada explained to these voters that counting machines were removed from polling places years ago, and he ensured them all ballots are secure by detailing the chain of custody.

Robert and Georgia Gonzalez, of Fair Oaks, dropped off their ballots in the pink envelops voters received in the mail several weeks ago. They said they just felt more secure dropping off the ballots at the Fair Oaks polling place on Election Day.

The Gonzalez couple voted to recall Newsom and to replace him with Republican candidate Larry Elder.

“We look around and we see it’s really deteriorating, with the homeless problem,” Robert Gonzalez said.

Robert Gonzalez is from the Bay Area, and his wife grew up in Fair Oaks. They said they want a change in leadership for California.

“Everything (Newsom) does is reckless and feckless,” Georgia Gonzalez said.

— Rosalio Ahumada, The Sacramento Bee

Quite a wait in Citrus Heights

Compared to Fair Oaks, the polling place at Citrus Heights City Hall was much busier about 12:30 p.m., with a line of a few dozen people stretched outside the building as people waited on the sidewalk under the hot sun. This was the line for people who wanted to vote in person; at the front of City Hall was the box where voters could drop off their ballots and not wait in line.

Julie Huey of Citrus Heights waited in line for an hour to cast her ballot in-person Tuesday at City Hall. She said it was a mistake, because she didn’t realize the wait would be that long.

“I probably won’t do that again, because they don’t even even scan (the collected ballots),” said Huey, who was disappointed the ballots are not counted at the polling place.

Huey, who didn’t want to say how she voted in the recall election, said she didn’t want to mail-in her ballot. She said she didn’t feel secure about that mailed ballots after learning there were holes in the pink ballot envelopes.

Huey was referring to holes in the envelope to help guide blind voters to the signature line, according to the Sacramento County Elections Office. The holes in the envelopes do not reveal any of the contests no matter how the ballot is folded and placed in the envelope, elections officials said in an Aug. 20 news release in response to a video that surfaced online.

The video claimed a recall ballot, when folded and placed in the return envelope, showed how a person voted on the first question on the ballot, but elections officials said that ballot and envelope were not from Sacramento County.

Wess Larson, who lives in the Foothill Farms neighborhood, dropped off his ballot at the Citrus Heights polling place. He said he always votes on Election Day and didn’t want to miss his chance at receiving his “I Voted” sticker.

“This is a good crowd here, I think people are energized,” Larson said about those waiting in line at City Hall.

He said he voted to recall Newsom but did not vote for any of the candidates wanting to replace the governor. Larson said he wanted to “send a signal” to Newsom that he disapproves, but he knows Newsom won’t lose the recall.

“I think he’s wrong on how he handled this pandemic,” Larson said about Newsom. “I wear a mask, I socially distance, I got my vaccine. But no elected official should mandate on someone chooses to live their life.”

— Rosalio Ahumada, The Sacramento Bee

What’s at stake in the election

Newsom is the fourth governor in U.S. history and the second in California to face a recall. Californians removed Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and replaced him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The results of the race in which Newsom needs a majority vote to hold his job are likely to influence the 2022 midterms, when control of Congress again will be in play and the party that controls the White House historically loses seats. They could determine how prominently Democrats campaign on COVID-19 restrictions that many Republicans have decried as unnecessary and overly burdensome.

With much riding on the outcome, Biden was last among a prominent list of Democrats to make cameo appearances in the contest either in person or in ads, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former President Barack Obama and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Newsom’s ouster would be a stunning rebuke in heavily Democratic California, where the party controls every statewide office, dominates the Legislature and congressional delegation and holds a nearly 2-to-1 advantage in registered voters. Less than three years ago he was elected in a landslide.

Newsom’s advisers, meanwhile, expressed increasing confidence that the governor would survive the effort to drive him out of office more than a year before the end of his first term. The campaign had 25,000 volunteers on the streets over the weekend, and has sent 31 million text messages to voters.

Recent polling has shown Newsom holding an edge in his bid to save his job.

“There’s no scenario where we lose tomorrow,” Newsom strategist Sean Clegg said.

When will we know who won?

Despite the anticipation, it’s possible Californians will not know the outcome of the race until long past the polls closing at 8 p.m.

“Be prepared to wait,” said Stephen Ohlemacher, the election decision editor for the Associated Press, which has counted the vote in every U.S. election since 1848.

Every active, registered voter in California, about 22 million, received a mail ballot for the recall election. As of Monday evening, more than 7.5 million ballots had been returned.

The first returns on election night, the ones reported right after the polls close, are likely to consist of mail ballots and early, in-person ballots processed prior to election day, Ohlemacher said.

In 2020, across the nation, Republicans were more likely to vote on election day than by mail after President Donald Trump raised questions about mail ballots. Those who did vote by mail leaned “pretty significantly toward Democrats,” he added.

Early votes this time heavily favor Newsom, according to Political Data Inc., which tracks return ballots. A poll last week conducted for the Berkeley Institute of Governmental studies found that 77% of those who intended to vote in person on election day favored recalling the Democratic governor.

Elder makes a final push

Elder staged his capstone rally in nearby Orange County, where he urged his supporters to reach out to friends and neighbors and urge them to vote. The GOP will need a heroic election day turnout to catch Democrats who have been turning in mail ballots in larger numbers. Nearly 8 million Californians already have cast mail-in ballots.

“Make sure you have your friends vote, vote, vote, and try and get 10 more friends to vote and hit every call, make every call, knock on every door, we’re gonna win this thing if we turn out the vote,” Elder said from a hotel ballroom in Costa Mesa.

But it appeared Elder was already conceding before Tuesday, as he joined other Republicans who are falsely claiming that votes are rigged in favor of Democrats and suggesting, without evidence, that Gov. Gavin Newsom can only win with fraudulent votes.

The claims are unsubstantiated, and echo similar false messages promoted by Republicans last year following Biden’s victory.

Elder told reporters in Los Angeles last week that he believes “there might very well be shenanigans” in the recall election, but that he expects to win anyway because “so many Californians are angry about what’s going on,” according to CNN.

Elder said his campaign nevertheless is ready to file lawsuits and encouraged people to report any issues.

“We have a voter integrity board all set up – most of these are lawyers,” Elder said Wednesday, according to CNN. “So, when people hear things, they contact us. We’re going to file lawsuits in a timely fashion.”

A link on Elder’s campaign website, labeled as “report election incident,” takes users to a form to report incidents of voter fraud and sign a petition to investigate the results of the recall.

Asked to provide evidence of any suspicious voting activity, Elder campaign spokeswoman Ying Ma said that “we all want every proper vote to be counted” and “whatever shenanigans there are will not stand in the way of him becoming the next governor.”

Why is there a recall?

While Newsom has sought to nationalize the race, Republicans have criticized him relentlessly for rising taxes, an unchecked homeless crisis, climbing crime rates and housing prices that are out of reach for many in the working class. The recall gained momentum largely out of frustration with Newsom’s COVID-19 restrictions that shuttered schools and businesses and cost millions of jobs.

“There’s no front that I can think of where this man has done a good job — not on schools, not on homelessness, not in the way he shut down this state,” Elder said earlier Monday.

Voters are being asked two questions: Should Newsom be recalled, yes or no, and, if he is ousted, who should replace him? The results of the second question are irrelevant if a majority of voters support retaining Newsom.

Monday’s last push in Sacramento

Before the south state rally Monday, Biden toured wildfire damage east of Sacramento after touching down at Mather Airport.

Mixing policy with politics on his first California visit since taking office, the president praised Newsom’s leadership on responding to climate change, which is contributing to California’s wildfires becoming bigger and more destructive.

After a quick briefing at the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services command center, Biden and Newsom boarded a Marine aircraft for a tour of damage wrought by the Caldor Fire. The fire has chewed through 219,267 acres in the Eldorado National Forest, destroyed more than 1,000 buildings and spilled dangerously into the Lake Tahoe Basin.

“These fires are blinking code red for our nation,” Biden said afterward, standing in front of a Cal Fire engine at a Mather hangar. “We can’t ignore the reality that these wildfires are being supercharged by climate change.”

Elder and Republicans say Democratic leaders have failed to appropriately manage California’s forests, leaving more fuel for fires to burn through.

Biden hammered home the virtue of fighting climate change and urged Congress to pass his long-delayed $1 trillion infrastructure bill — two issues that he said are inextricably linked. Although some of his proposed climate investments were stripped out of the infrastructure bill, they have been included in his budget plan, which is also pending in Congress.

The infrastructure bill includes about $3 billion in additional funding for the USDA Forest Service — an expenditure that could remedy a sore spot in California’s fight against wildfires.

The president also spent several minutes offering the OES staff a pep talk on their efforts to control the state’s wildfires.

“You’ve been fighting like hell, you’ve been moving in a way that few states have done,” he said, strolling in front of the giant electronic map pinpointing the location of California’s major fires.

-- Lara Korte and Dale Kasler, The Sacramento Bee

This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 10:59 AM with the headline "Live updates: California goes to the polls in the Gov. Gavin Newsom recall election."