Gavin Newsom May Not Be Listed as a Democrat On Recall Ballot Due to Filing Error

Due to a filing error, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) may not be listed as a Democrat on the recall ballot later this year and, in turn, be listed with no party preference.

According to Courthouse News, due to Newsom’s animosity toward his handpicked Secretary of State Shirley Weber and a paperwork screwup, he will not be listed as a Democrat on the ballot unless a judge steps in to grant special treatment for the governor. The mistake in his paperwork was made roughly 16 months ago, but on Monday, Newsom sued Weber for not “smoothing over a filing mistake.”

The lawsuit, which was filed in the Sacramento County Superior Court states:

The voters would be deprived of the very information the Legislature has deemed important for them to receive, all because the governor’s counsel inadvertently failed to file a form about the governor’s ballot designation at least 16 months before the recall election has been called.

In previous California recalls, the elected officials were not allowed to list their party’s preference on the recall ballot. The Sacramento Bee reported, “Newsom acted to change that in 2019, before the current recall effort against him began, by signing a law he and lawmakers said would give voters more information.”

Unfortunately for Newsom, the law requires the elected official to list their party when they officially respond to a recall effort, but Newsom did roughly 16 months ago without listing his party. In the past, Newsom has also tried to portray the recall effort against him as a partisan effort from Republicans.

The Sacramento Bee report added that Newsom’s lawyers in the suit tried to pass off Newsom, forgetting to add his party preference on the filing as “an inadvertent but good faith mistake on the part of his elections attorney,” when the recall effort started to remove him from office. According to the suit, Weber had declined when Newsom tried to correct the mistake he made on June 19.

His lawyers are trying to argue that the changes should be accepted by Weber since the specifics of the election, like the date and who is running against him, have yet to be fully set.

The case is Newsom v. Weber in the Superior Court of Sacramento County, California.