The effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has surpassed the 566,857 signatures needed by the July 6 deadline, the campaign announced June 15.
The group is now focused on collecting additional signatures to account for signatures that may be invalidated once they are submitted to the county registrar’s office for verification.
“We are officially within striking distance of initiating a recall against George Gascón, but the urgency for signature collection in these final days will be greater than ever,” the Recall District Attorney George Gascón campaign said in a statement. “Simply clearing the required threshold is not enough—we must build the necessary cushion for signatures that are inevitably invalidated.”
Recall campaign spokesman Tim Lineberger told The Epoch Times they are shooting for 650,000 to 700,000 signatures.
If enough signatures are validated, the option to recall Gascón will appear on the November ballot.
Gascón previously called the recall effort against him an initiative “driven by very conservative, very right-wing forces” during an interview with the How We Win podcast on June 1.
“They have sort of created this false narrative about this is anti-safety, which is kind of the same fear-mongering tactics frankly that you can go back to the Nixon era,” Gascón said during the hour-long interview.
Gascón, who was elected in December 2020, made promises to progressively reform Los Angeles County’s criminal justice system. Some of his reforms included holding accountable law enforcement officers who violate the law, no longer charging minors as adults, eliminating many sentencing enhancements including firearms, ending the death penalty, and removing cash bail for misdemeanors or nonviolent felony crimes.
More than 34 cities in the county have issued a vote of “no confidence” in Gascón. The recall is also supported by several law enforcement figures, including the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, and the Los Angeles Police Protective League.
The recall effort against Gascón became a central issue in the Los Angeles mayoral debates this year. The two frontrunners, real-estate billionaire Rick Caruso and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), stand in opposition with one another. While Bass does not support the recall, Caruso endorsed the recall campaign.
Just a week ago, voters in San Francisco opted to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin during the June 7 primaries. Gascón served as the district attorney in San Francisco prior to Boudin.
“I think it will be an even bigger landslide [than Boudin’s recall],” Lineberger told The Epoch Times. “Los Angeles residents despise George Gascón, and will jump at the chance to fire him if given the opportunity.”
