OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — Groups attempting to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price — who has only been in office for one year — say they've collected 123,000 signatures, but questions abound as to the methods and personnel used to gather the signatures.
Representatives of the organization Protect the Win sent a letter last week asking California Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate “reports of widespread fraud” by the recall movement’s signature gatherers and methods used to get signatures on the recall petition. Price says the recall is led by people with troubling histories, like organizer Seneca Scott who is known for making threatening statements about public figures and has made homophobic statements comparing homosexuality to pedophilia.
The recall movement says that it has worked hard to meet the county’s deadlines for signature submission and raised more than $2 million within the last year. Save Alameda for Everyone, one of two groups behind the recall effort, said it has collected more than the baseline 73,000 Alameda County voter signatures required to certify a recall. The county has not yet confirmed if that is true.
Recall supporters say they formed after several staffers in the DA's office resigned in protest of Price's progressive methods, and claim her policies are signs that she will not be as “tough on crime” as her predecessor. Price dominated the June 2022 primary and beat the former district attorney’s expected successor by taking about 53% of votes. In a county known for calls for justice reform amid incidents of excessive force and discrimination across the local criminal justice system, Price is the county's first Black lead prosecutor, and campaigned on increased police accountability.
Price said in a statement Monday on X, formerly Twitter, that California Secretary of State Shirley Weber must ensure that every signature in the recall petition is individually reviewed and verified.
“We’ve received countless reports about deceptive and fraudulent efforts to collect signatures, including eyewitness testimony of petitions being left unattended and fake signature writing,” Price said in the statement.
Complaints stem from numerous reports that at least one signature gatherer asked people to sign several pages of a different local petition without telling them that it included the petition to recall Price, as was observed at a Trader Joe’s location near Lake Merritt in Oakland. Price’s office says it is concerned that if petitioners asked people to sign several pages without disclosing that they would be signing a recall petition, it could be construed as a deceptive “bait and switch” tactic used by signature gatherers who are paid for each signature.
According to recent filings the recall backers want the county Board of Supervisors to appoint a new DA, which Price says would be a return to the old practice of appointing a district attorney rather than electing another. Price called the effort "a 100-year step backward that the people of Alameda County, residing in what is meant to be a democracy, should find concerning."
“The roots of this attempt to remove the democratically elected DA belong to a handful of super-rich people, who have propped up a smaller number of political actors to make it appear that Alameda County residents are the motivational force behind this effort," Price's team said. "That is why people from outside the county had to be paid to collect signatures. The biggest property owners in Oakland, such as Isaac Abid of HP Partners and one of the major donors, should not have more of a say in our democracy than anyone else.”
The Alameda County Registrar of Voters and Bonta's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The registrar has said that if certified, the recall could cost local voters $15 to $20 million. The county has 10 calendar days to count and verify each signature the recall petitioners have gathered.
This recall effort follows the successful 2022 campaign to remove San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who also campaigned on more progressive policies to reform the county’s criminal justice system. That recall effort also received millions from wealthy real estate interests, such as California Real Estate Independent Expenditure Committee-California Association of Realtors.
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