A grassroots campaign to recall the far-left District Attorney of Los Angeles, George Gascon, has been disqualified from the November ballot after county election officials claimed there were too many “invalid” signatures on the petition.
ABC News reports that, out of the roughly 717,000 signatures submitted by the campaign to the Los Angeles County elections office, at least 200,000 signatures were determined by officials on Monday to be invalid. This brought the total number of verified signatures down to about 520,000, below the minimum required total of 570,000 needed for the initiative to qualify for the ballot this fall.
Gascon acknowledged the recall’s defeat in a tweet, saying that he was “grateful to move forward from this attempted political power grab,” and that his “primary focus has been and will always be keeping us safe and creating a more equitable justice system for all.”
Christine Soto DeBerry, a spokeswoman for the far-left Prosecutors Alliance which supports Gascon and other progressive district attorneys, also celebrated the decision by declaring that “Los Angeles’ criminal justice reform movement has prevailed because this is a community that prefers facts over misplaced fear.”
In response, the recall campaign issued a statement vowing to review all of the invalidated signatures in order to “ensure no voter was disenfranchised.” The campaign nevertheless stated that over half a million signatures in support of recalling Gascon reflected “a wholesale rejection of Gascon’s dangerous polices.
“The citizens of Los Angeles cannot afford another two years of Gascón unleashing havoc on their streets,” the recall campaign added.
Only the second attempt to recall Gascon in as many years, the effort was lead by a broad, bipartisan coalition of residents, former law enforcement officials, and lawyers who were openly critical of Gascon’s “soft on crime” approach, which includes reducing sentences for convicted criminals and allowing more uninhibited use of drugs in public.
Gascon’s critics frequently pointed out his heavy financial ties to far-left billionaire George Soros, who has publicly boasted about his efforts to plant progressive district attorneys throughout the United States specifically for the purpose of refusing to enforce the law once in office, in order to further the collapse of the country. Backlash to Soros’ efforts resulted in an upset victory in a previous recall election earlier this year, when San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin, the son of domestic terrorists, was removed from office in June.