The attempt to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has failed to secure enough valid signatures to take the decision to the ballot, according to the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean C. Logan said his office had finished the examination and verification of the 715,833 petition signatures sent in to recall the controversial progressive DA.
“Based on the examination and verification, which conducted in compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the California Government Code, Elections Code, and Code of Regulations, 520,050 signatures were found to be valid and 195,783 were found to be invalid,” Logan’s office said in a news release.
BREAKING: The effort to recall L.A. DA @GeorgeGascon has FAILED to qualify for the ballot. The Registrar-Recorders office announced only 520,050 of the 715k+ signatures it collected were valid. It needed 566,857. Details below. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/uoEo473QBO
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) August 15, 2022
In order to qualify for the recall to be taken to the ballot, there needed to be 566,857 valid petition signatures.
“[T]herefore, the petition has failed to meet the sufficiency requirements and no further action shall be taken on the petition,” the release said.
The invalid signatures included 88,464 that were not registered, 43,593 duplicates, 32,187 had a different address, 9,490 had a mismatched signature, 7,344 were canceled, 5,374 were out of county addresses, and 9,331 were labeled as “Other.”
The recall effort now has 21 days to start examining the signatures if they wish to do so.
Gascón has repeatedly been criticized for implementing policies that don’t properly punish criminals, which opponents argue have made Los Angeles more dangerous.
“As soon as he was sworn into office, District Attorney George Gascon began issuing directives to his prosecutors, instructing them to go soft on crime, coddle criminals, and trample upon the dignity and rights of crime victims,” the Recall DA George Gascon website states. “To keep our communities safe, to mete out just punishment to those who break our laws, and to provide justice to crime victims throughout Los Angles County, we must recall District Attorney George Gascon.”
Gascón campaigned on policies he later implemented, such as not pursuing the death penalty, not prosecuting minors as adults, and stopping cash bails for certain crimes.
In June of last year, Gascón addressed the uptick in crime.
“The reality is crime has been going up, in fact, in L.A. County we had a 25% increase in violent crime over the last seven years because we continue to do the same things over and over again, expecting different results,” Gascón said. “What I am doing is, I am revamping the way that we address violence by using science, using data, taking a public health lens approach with the way that we deal with crime.”
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recently successfully recalled after facing similar criticism.
The Daily Wire has reached out to the Recall DA George Gascon campaign for comment.