Here's how many California voters left question two of the Gavin Newsom recall ballot blank

[hookaleft]

In his campaign to survive the Sept. 14 recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom implored Democratic voters to leave the second question of the recall ballot blank. The question asked: If Gavin Newsom is recalled, which candidate should replace him?

This strategy was deployed in order to paint the recall as a choice between Newsom and replacement frontrunner Larry Elder, a firebrand conservative radio host whose decision to enter the race late has since been blamed for Newsom's landslide victory.

Elder dominated the ballot's second question, receiving 46.9% of the question vote as of 9:10 a.m. Wednesday morning. The next closest candidates were Kevin Paffrath and Kevin Faulconer at 9.8% and 8.6%, respectively.


However, that big lead for Elder is a bit misleading. As of Wednesday morning totals, there were 9,137,428 total votes cast on question one (Shall Gavin Newsom be recalled?), and just 5,057,445 cast on question two.


https://www.sfgate.com/gavin-newsom-recall/article/leave-question-two-blank-recall-Newsom-Elder-vote-16461275.php

[ColinC]

1. So Newsom 65% to Elders 25%

Lol

[ItsjustMe]

2. In the write-in box

I put my own name

[shenmue]

5. Yay

[lame54]

3. Did not answer it...

Lots of people questioned this strategy

In the last Recall they pushed Bustamante as a dem safety net which caused some to vote Yes on the first question thinking a dem would still be in charge

The new strategy clearly put D's vs R's and it worked beautifully

[former9thward]

7. It really was not the same type of election.

Last time the Rs had a celebrity candidate -- Arnold. They did not have anyone even close to that this time.

[lame54]

8. That's not the point...

The safety net got a lot of dems to vote Yes on the recall

Didn't happen this time
Winning is great but a blowout sends a stronger message

[former9thward]

10. The point is there was no celebrity to vote for.

Last edited Wed Sep 15, 2021, 04:22 PM - Edit history (1)

CA is a celebrity state like no other. Your fame counts.

[lame54]

14. Not saying it wasn't a factor...

Yes, Arnold was popular and may have won anyways but
The strategy this time was the opposite and the outcome wildly different

[lunatica]

16. He was also a very popular celebrity

Which I think is why people voted for him.

[brush]

4. Voting "No" only simplified it and made it easier to campaign...

to retain Newsom as governor.

[former9thward]

6. Well that means a majority of the voters rejected Newsom's plea to ignore question 2.

[sdfernando]

9. I think that is not quite right.

You would need to know how many of those that answered question 2 also voted No on the Recall. I would venture to guess the majority of those that answered question 2 were GQP so they were going to ignore Newsom no matter what.

[former9thward]

11. The vote was 5,840,000 No, 3,297,000 Yes.

Assuming all the Yes voted on #2, Then it means around 1,800,000 of those who voted No also voted on #2. Which means 31% of those voting No on the recall also voted on #2. Not a majority of the No voters but a significant amount.

[sdfernando]

13. Which validates what I said. You're original statement was not quite right. /NT

[former9thward]

15. It was 100% right.

I said a majority of the voters. I guess you only count people who vote the way you want. Our system counts both.

[ZonkerHarris]

12. I wrote "fuck the GOP" on the write in line