I voted today; vote no on recall

California Governor Gavin Newsom reaches out to the AAPI electorate.

OPINION

I mailed in my ballot today. I voted "no" against the recall of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

There are only two questions on the ballot. 1. Should Gov. Gavin Newsome by recalled; and 2. Who should replace him. Voters are asked to select the next governor from dozens of candidates ranging from transgender advocate Caitlyn Jenner to former San Diego Mayor Falconer to conservative talk show host Larry Elder.

Correction: This just in. “As the subject of the recall cannot be a candidate, a write-in vote for Newsom would not be counted,” a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office said in an email. “Only certified write-in candidates are counted.” Ignore the following paragraph.

Just in case the extremists are able to motivate enough of the disgruntled Donald Trump suppoerters, Q-anon followers, anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers and generally those against the democratic process are successful in ousting the governor, on the second item of the special election ballot, I wrote in the name of Gavin Newsom as the person I would elect as governor.

According to FiveThirtyEight, the candidate with the most voter appeal is Elder, who polled with 19% of the vote. It is possible that Newsom could be recalled with 49% of the vote and his successor would garner only 19% of the vote, or less,

Election day is Sept. 14 when people can go to the polls and vote in person, but Californians are allowed to begin mailing in their ballots or drop them off in secure, specified ballot boxes up to and including Sept. 15. If voters don't want to join the rush to vote on Sept. 14, early voting begins the weekend before at specific polling places.

In my Bay Area county, 91% of the ballots cast in the November 2020 election were sent in by mail and there were zero instances of voter fraud, as was the case in the rest of California. 

Democracy is not a bystander sport. It demands the participation of a well-informed citizenry. Thus, the act of voting should be encouraged and made easier. In this solidly blue state, Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans, but there's a sizable group who label themselves as independent voters, who lean Democrat but are fickle and are open to the arguments of fears and lies generated by the recall backers.

What looked like an easy victory for Newsom in the Spring has narrowed to a single percentage point in recent days. According to the FiveThirtyEight, a nonpartisan tracker of polls, as of Aug. 17, 47.6% of those likely to cast their ballots would vote to oust the governor; while those 48.8% would keep Newsom in office. Basically, a dead heat.

Although the state voted overwhelmingly Democratic in picking Joe Biden for President and former California Attorney General Kamala Harris as his running mate, the Democratic Party is worried that voter apathy could work against Newsom.

While the recall backers are excited and energized about their efforts, thus far, too many Democrat voters are not informed at what is at stake and the early media portrayal of a Newsom landslide victory may have made too many smug or have an attitude that their vote would not change the outcome.

Recall supporters know that people are angry about all the inconvenieces caused by the pandemic, state taxes and environmental mitigation efforts. Throw in the Republicans who can't win a statewide office and those who see the recall as a way to strike back at the Democratic governor. Then add those voters who don't like the demographic change in their state that has made California one of three states where whites are not in the majority.

That's a lot of anger and, it turns out, that's a lot of votes.

Newsom and the Democrats have lost some of that swagger from earlier in the year. Just making Democrats nervous is a win in itself believe some Republicans. A virtual dead heat makes every vote count and that's why Newsom in fighting for his political life..

California ballots are available in a number of Asian languages.

The governor is in campaign mode, making every effort to reach out to Hispanic and Asian voters for their support and to energize younger voters and the Democratic base. In a series of events reaching out to the AAPI community, Newsom was introduced by Attorney General Rob Bonta, who was appointed by Newsom in March to become California's first AG of Filipino descent.

“Gavin is a champion for APIs in California, and time and time again he’s put the needs of our families and our communities front and center,” said Bonta, in the virtual press conference.

“When the pandemic hit, Governor Newsom acted quickly to protect our families and most vulnerable community members,” Bonta added. “He listened to the experts, doctors and scientists. He followed data and evidence, and when Donald Trump used the pandemic to spew hate and anti-Asian rhetoric, Governor Newsom stood up and defended our communities.”

Newsom was one of the first public officials to speak out against the hate acts directed at AAPI. California, with over 6 million APPI residents, also has the overwhelming number of anti-Asian hate incidents, according to Stop AAPI Hate, a San Francisco-based community-based organization that has collected over 9,000 reports of anti-AAPI hate since March 2020.

“We’ve been very consistent in calling [anti-Asian hate crimes] out, and using the bully pulpit…and I was one of the first governors in the country to do that and push back against Trump and the rhetoric he was spewing as it relates to anti-Asian hate.”

Besides appointing Bonta, the state's top law enforcement official, Newsom also signed the $156.5 API Equity Budget, which puts into place a number of initiatives to combat the anti-AAPI hate that continues to surge through the state's AAPI community.

Almost all -- 124 -- of California's AAPI elected office holders statewide have officially come out against the recall attempt.

“I am very proud of this state, where 27% of us are foreign-born. We’re majority minority-born. We celebrate, we don’t just tolerate that diversity,” said Newsom during the press briefing.

A word of caution: This news article is laced with my personal opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to form their own opinion.