Morning Distribution for Friday, September 10, 2021

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Morning Distribution]( Friday, September 10, 2021 Your daily briefing from FiveThirtyEight --------------------------------------------------------------- The Morning Story [A illustration fo the map of California, overlaid by four differently colored ovals]( [How California Became The Recall Capital Of The U.S.]( By [Jasmine Mithani]( and [Maya Sweedler]( California leads the nation in efforts to recall members of its government, but there’s no single reason for this — in fact, there are four. First, practically every public official in the state is eligible for recall. In addition, a recall petition can be triggered for any reason. California doesn’t require as many signatures as other states either, and it allows petitions to circulate longer. All these factors combine to make California’s recall process one of the most lenient in the country. Gavin Newsom is the latest governor to face a recall attempt in the state, but he’s hardly the first. Everyone who has served as governor of California in the past 60 years has faced at least one attempted recall. But Newsom is part of a much more exclusive club with next Tuesday’s election: Qualifying a recall for the ballot is still rare, but California has seen more recalls of state legislators and governors qualify than any other state. Of the 29 recall elections for state legislators that have taken place in the U.S., nine have been in California, [according to the National Conference of State Legislatures](. And after Sept. 14, two of the nation’s four gubernatorial recall elections will have taken place in California. The state’s recall procedure was enacted as a constitutional amendment over a century ago. As a Progressive Era reform, the recall — along with the initiative and the referendum, two hallmarks of California’s legislate-by-ballot system — was intended to strengthen the electorate’s power over its government. A California state senator was recalled in 1913, and with that, the recall was off to the races: There have been 178 subsequent attempts to recall elected state officials. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: How Politics Have Changed Since The Days After 9/11]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.