Newsom Suing State Elections Chief to Get Party Listed on Recall Ballot

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has filed a lawsuit against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber in a bid to get his party preference listed on a recall ballot, according to Courthouse News.

Newsom and his staff reportedly failed to complete paperwork that would have allowed him to state his party preference on the upcoming recall ballot that he faces, meaning that he won’t be listed as a Democrat unless a judge intervenes, while more than a dozen candidates running to replace him will have their party preferences included.

“The Secretary of State’s office has a ministerial duty to accept timely filed documents. Acceptance of filings beyond a deadline requires judicial resolution,” a spokesperson for Weber, Joe Kocurek, told Courthouse News in response to a question about the lawsuit.

Politico notes that Newsom appointed Weber, who assumed office last January, and signed the legislation that he’s currently suing over, which states that he had seven days to complete the paperwork listing his party preference as well as his response to the recall petition. 

His lawsuit argues that the narrow timeframe for the paperwork was unnecessarily arbitrary, and that “the voters would be deprived of the very information the Legislature has deemed important for them to receive, all because the governor’s counsel inadvertently failed to file a form about the governor’s ballot designation at least 16 months before the recall election has been called.”

The suit goes on to argue that law connects the deadline for listing party preference to the response deadline only for convenience and not out of concern for ensuring a timely election. Newsom’s suit also claims that the governor has been unfairly punished since he had to file his party preference paperwork about 16 months before the election, but his opponents only have to file theirs 59 days before the vote takes place.

"To apply that deadline here would also lead to absurd results,” the lawsuit adds. “The voters would be deprived of the very information the Legislature has deemed important for them to receive, all because the Governor's counsel inadvertently failed to file a forma bout the Governor's ballot designation at least sixteen months before the recall election has been called and long before it became clear that the recall would even qualify for the ballot."

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