California Governor Gavin Newsom has unofficially emerged victorious from the 2021 recall election. Preliminary results show 63.9 percent of votes in support of Newsom retaining his position with over nine million votes having already been counted, according to both CNN and Fox News.
All California residents who are registered to vote were mailed a ballot and were faced with the decision of voting whether or not Newsom should be recalled from the office of governor. The second and final task that voters were faced with was choosing one of the 46 candidates to replace Newsom, should he be recalled.
Candidates running against Newsom included conservative talk radio host, Larry Elder, businessman John Cox, and former Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner. Elder, Cox and Jenner all conceded following the release of the preliminary results.
According to the California Secretary of State’s website, the preliminary counting of votes indicates a 37 percent voter turnout for Stanislaus County, potentially leaving the opinions of over half of eligible voters remaining unspoken and unrepresented in this recall election.
Yoselin Rodriguez (junior, Psychology) was one of the many California residents who did not partake in the recall election.
“I didn’t vote because I find it slightly meaningless to recall, as the upcoming elections for governor are coming up next year,” explained Rodriguez.
Other students felt that they were not in a position to make an educated decision on the matter.
“I didn’t vote because I don’t use much social media outside of YouTube and I don’t watch the news often,” explained Andre Davis (junior, Biology)
The potential lack of participation of voters in the recall election is mirrored through multiple counties neighboring Stanislaus County. San Joaquin County, Merced County, and Fresno County all had less than 40 percent voter turnout, contributing to the 41 percent statewide voter turnout, according to the updated results posted two days after voting concluded.
The results of the election will be declared official when they are certified on October 22. Updated vote counts can be viewed here.