Los Angeles County DA George Gascon recall petition found ‘insufficient’ to qualify for ballot

A petition to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has been found insufficient to qualify for a ballot. 

Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorded/County Clerk Dean C. Logan said his office had completed the examination and verification of all 715,833 petition signatures submitted for the recall of Gascon. 

“Based on the examination and verification, which conducted in compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the California Government Code, Elections Code, and Code of Regulations, 520,050 signatures were found to be valid and 195,783 were found to be invalid,” Logan’s office said in a press release. 

To qualify the recall for the ballot, the petition required 566,857 valid signatures. 

LOS ANGELES DA GEORGE GASCON RECALL EFFORT: ORGANIZERS SAY THEY SUBMITTED THOUSANDS MORE NAMES THAN NEEDED

“[T]herefore, the petition has failed to meet the sufficiency requirements and no further action shall be taken on the petition,” the release said. 

Of the invalid signatures, more than 88,000 were not registered, 43,593 were duplicates, 32,187 were a different address, 9,490 were mismatched signatures, 7,344 were canceled, 5,374 were out of county addresses, while more than 9,300 fell under the category of “other.”

The recall’s backers have a three-week window to review the submitted names in the Registrar. Recall backers have told Fox News in recent weeks that this process would be more useful to them in gathering evidence for possible litigation. 

Gascon’s opponents have repeatedly painted him as soft on crime because of his progressive policies that critics say ignore victims and have allowed criminals to be given lenient sentences. 

Critics have argued that Gascon’s progressive directives are to blame for an uptick in crime and emboldening criminals who supposedly no longer fear robust prosecution by the DA’s office. Gascon has repeatedly denied these charges. 

The latest failed attempt to recall Gascon comes after San Francisco voters recalled another progressive prosecutor, District Attorney Chesa Boudin.  

Fox News has reached out to Gascon’s office for comment on the recall effort failing to qualify for a petition and will update this story accordingly. 

Fox News’ Louis Casiano and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.