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More than 90% of Californians Voted by Mail in Governor Recall Election

About 91% of all votes cast in the recall election were submitted via the mail-in option. Voting by mail in the United States started in the late 1800s. But in a first-in-the-nation execution, California mailed ballots to every registered voter in the state, a move voting rights advocates praised for setting new standards for expanding enfranchisement.

Published

4 years ago

November 9, 2021

Oakland Post

The results for the question on the ballot asking whether Gov. Gavin Newsom should be recalled were: 4,894,473 yes votes and 7,944,092 nos.

By Edward Henderson | California Black Media

California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber has certified the votes from the Sept. 14, 2021, California Gubernatorial Recall Election. The election marked the second time since 1913 that a recall petition made it to the polls in California.

The results for the question on the ballot asking whether Gov. Gavin Newsom should be recalled were: 4,894,473 yes votes and 7,944,092 nos.

California election law requires results for each replacement candidate to be tabulated and recorded. They can be found here.

The leading replacement candidate was Larry Elder who garnered 3,563,867 votes. His tally counted for 48.4% of all votes for replacement candidates. Almost 5.5 million voters left their response blank for who they believed the replacement candidate should be.

“Despite the ongoing uncertainties of the pandemic, I am encouraged that millions of Californians were still committed to participating in the California Gubernatorial Recall Election – nearly 3.5 million more than participated in the 2003 recall election,” Weber said after announcing the certification of the vote. “As I’ve said before, democracy matters to Californians and giving them the option to participate early by mail, at secure drop-off locations or safely in person has clearly reinforced their commitment to making their voices heard.”

In total, there were 22,057,154 registered voters (as of August 30, 2021), a state record for California. A total of 12,892,578 votes were cast — 3,479,084 more votes than were cast in the last statewide gubernatorial recall election in 2003.

The California Secretary of State’s office made a substantial effort to conduct the election as smoothly and effectively as possible considering the unprecedented challenges pandemic safety restrictions presented. An online system for tracking mail-in ballots in real time was just one of a number of innovations implemented to give voters confidence that their voices would be heard.

“I also want to commend the state’s elections officials and poll workers for stepping up to ensure the recall ran so smoothly,” Webber said. “The short timeline and the logistics of providing voter information, ensuring access to the election, securing the ballots and protecting the health and safety of voters were a challenging endeavor. Their effectiveness at delivering an accessible, fair and secure election under these conditions deserves our respect. I am proud to serve with them in the administration of our democracy.”

The only successful California gubernatorial recall election was held in 2003 when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced Gov. Gray Davis after winning 48.6 % of the vote.

Every California governor since 1960 has faced some form of a recall attempt. Newsom’s detractors cited his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as the basis for this most recent attempt.

Since surviving the recall, Newsom has signed 92% of the bills that have come to his desk into law. Among notable measures are sentencing reform for convicts and increasing commercial real estate taxes to fund affordable housing initiatives and fight homelessness.

“Traditionally, we have governors who have been more centrist than Newsom,” said Bill Whalen, a policy fellow at the Hoover Institution, in an interview with Newsweek. The Hoover Institution is a conservative think tank at Stanford University in Palo Alto. “With the recall now gone, this is a governor who is really not threatened in any way.”

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

2 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

3 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

5 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke