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Our call — vote NO
The measure
This is a legislatively referred constitutional amendment (SCA 1). It eliminates the successor (replacement) election when a state officer is recalled. Today, a recall ballot asks two questions: whether to recall the officer, and who should replace them. Under this measure there is no second question: if a governor is recalled, the lieutenant governor serves until the next statewide election or, if the recall comes late in the term, for the rest of it; other vacancies are filled by special election for legislators and by gubernatorial appointment for other state offices. A recalled official could run in a resulting special election. The LAO notes the change also applies to legislative recalls.
What YES does
A YES vote removes the voters' choice of a replacement from the recall itself and substitutes succession and appointment.
What NO does
A NO vote keeps the two-question recall: voters who remove an officer choose the replacement on the same ballot.
The math
The LAO puts the fiscal effect as unknown, with possible savings or costs of millions of dollars per recall depending on circumstances. For scale, the LAO records 11 state recalls qualified since 1913, six of which succeeded; the 2003 gubernatorial recall drew 135 replacement candidates and the 2021 recall drew 46.
OUR CALL
Our call: NO.
The recall is the voters' emergency brake, and the replacement question is half of it. Removing it means a recalled governor is replaced by succession or appointment — decided by the political class, not the people who just fired the incumbent — and a recalled official can simply run again in the follow-up election. That is a recall with the teeth removed, written by the officials it exists to restrain. NO.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.
Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Sources
- California Secretary of State, Qualified Statewide Ballot Measures — https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures/
- California Official Voter Information Guide (Legislative Analyst's Office fiscal estimates), via the 2026 propositions master guide — https://californiatoday.com/guides/elections/2026-california-propositions-master-guide/
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.