California Secretary of State Shirley Weber published the complete results from the Sept. 14 Gubernatorial Election on Oct. 22, showing that a majority of Santa Barbara County voted “no” on the recall vote for California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The results show that, in Santa Barbara County, 58,149 people — or 38.2% of voters — voted “yes” on the recall, while 94,219 people — or 61.8% of voters — voted “no” on the recall. The county’s numbers were fairly similar to the overall state’s with 38.1% of statewide voters voting “yes” and 61.9% voting “no.”
Both on the statewide level and the county level, Newsom’s opponents, Republican Larry Elder, Democrat Kevin Paffrath and Republican Kevin Faulconer, were the top three opponents. Voters could vote “no” on the recall, but still choose a candidate in case Governor Gavin Newsom was removed from office. Elder received 48.4%, Paffrath received 9.6% and Faulconer received 8% of statewide votes.
In Santa Barbara County, 49.0% voted for Elder, 10.5% voted for Paffrath and 6.7% voted for Faulconer.
As of Aug. 30, there were 280,776 eligible voters in Santa Barbara County, but only 238,548 voters were registered. Of the registered voters, 111,695 were Democrats, 59,500 were Republicans, 7,995 were American Independents, 1,109 were Greens, 2,433 were Libertarians, 1,029 were Peace and Freedom, 1,585 were unknown, 1,550 were other and 51,652 had no party preference.
Santa Barbara had 115 precincts during the gubernatorial election. Of the 238,548 registered voters, 9,173 people voted in-person, 143,635 people voted by mail and 152,808 people voted in total.
There have been 179 attempts to recall state officials in California, 55 of which were for the governor. Only 11 of the 179 got enough signatures to qualify as an official recall, and six of those official attempts were successful. Six of the recalls were against State senators, three were against members of the State Assembly and two were against the governor.
The only governor to successfully be recalled in California was Governor Gray Davis, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced him.
The next gubernatorial election will be held in November 2022 during the midterm election.
A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the Oct. 28, 2021 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
