Your Recall Confusion Is Part of a Much Bigger Problem

California's Elections 'Don't Match How Human Beings Think, Choose, and Vote'

It’s not just our recall elections that are broken in California. It’s all our elections that are broken.

Even before the voting started, Democrats and California elites were crying foul. And when they say we need to change the way we do recall elections, they are half-right.

The recall—the question of whether to remove a governor—works just fine, despite what you may have read. But the election piece—the second question on the ballot, in which voters must pick a replacement for the governor if he’s recalled—is an anti-democratic mess.

And worrying about an …

Sack Octavius and Newsom! The Recall Is as Old as the Roman Republic | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Sack Octavius and Newsom! The Recall Is as Old as the Roman Republic

The Tool for Removing Elected Officials Has Had Centuries of Champions—from the Levellers to Lenin

The recall—the tool being used in an attempt to remove Gavin Newsom as California’s governor before his term is over—might seem strange or novel. It’s neither. The recall is nearly …

California graves

Does the Recall Matter if Republicans Already Run California?

Whatever Happens in September Won’t Change the Fact That the State Is Ruled by GOP Members From Beyond the Grave

The big narratives around the recall campaign are wrong—because the things we, Californians, think we know about California governance are wrong.

The Republicans who want to remove Gavin Newsom from office …

California’s Recall Is Riding a Global Wave | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

California’s Recall Is Riding a Global Wave

From Nigeria to Brazil, Democracies Are Experimenting With New Ways for People to Hold Their Elected Officials Accountable

The recall attempt against Gov. Gavin Newsom is being widely—and wrongly—dismissed as a peculiar and illegitimate consequence of California’s strange direct democracy.

The truth is that the recall is very much …

Why Does San Diego Love Recalling Governors?  | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Why Does San Diego Love Recalling Governors? 

Ambitions and Frustrations Churn in the 'Most Unabashedly American of California Cities'

Why are you so desperate to seize the governorship, San Diego?

The attempted recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom has many geographic roots. Its original proponent was a sheriff’s deputy from …

California vs. the Supreme Court | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

California vs. the Supreme Court

The Time Has Come to Challenge This Dishonorable Court's Bias Against Our State

Maybe the U.S. Supreme Court should recuse itself from cases involving the Golden State.

Because the current court, with a 6-3 conservative majority reinforced by new associate justice Amy Coney Barrett, …