OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A Bay Area district attorney will face a recall election after county officials spent more than a month checking over 100,000 signatures submitted by organizers who have been working to remove her from the office since she was elected in 2022.
In a statement Monday, Tim Dupuis of the Alameda County Registrar of Voters said that out of more than 123,000 signatures submitted in support of recalling Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price on March 4, about 74,000 were found to be valid, meeting the requirement of 73,195 valid signatures.
The timeline of the recall will be decided by the Alameda County's Board of Supervisors. It will be the first time in at least 30 years that any elected official in the county has faced a recall, according to the county's lead counsel Donna Ziegler. While the county charter allows only 10 days for counting and certification of all signatures, Dupuis' announcement came about 40 days after all signatures were submitted.
Save Alameda for Everyone, one of two organizations backing the recall effort, say opposition formed after several staffers in the DA's office resigned in protest of Price's progressive methods, claiming her policies are signs that she will not be as “tough on crime” as her predecessor. The organization said in a statement Monday that the Board of Supervisors at its April 30 meeting should accept the certification of the recall election and schedule a special election to take place within no more than 125 days.
"We are confident that this grassroots movement will pave the way for positive change and a brighter future for all residents and businesses in Alameda County," Save Alameda's principal officer Carl Chan, who is also the president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and and a board member of Visit Oakland, said Monday.
Price’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The district attorney has blasted the recall effort, saying that the movement is against the democratic process and led by people with troubling histories, including organizer Seneca Scott, known for making threatening statements about public figures and homophobic statements comparing homosexuality to pedophilia.
The news comes as critics of Oakland and county leaders have grown louder about an increase in robberies, although the Oakland Police Department reports a year-over-year decrease in most crime categories.
Price's supporters have complained to Attorney General Rob Bonta's office about 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 the district attorney. Dupuis said in his statement Monday that more than 48,000 signatures submitted in March were found to be invalid.
Price dominated the June 2022 primary and beat the former district attorney’s expected successor by winning about 53% of vote. 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 increasing police accountability.
The registrar has said the recall could cost local voters $15 to $20 million.
If it's successful, the backers want the county Board of Supervisors to appoint a new DA, which Price has said would be a return to the old practice of appointing a district attorney rather than electing one.
The 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. Both campaigns have raised millions from those with ties to the real estate industry and other private interests, according to court filings.
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