Newsom sues own elections chief to be identified as Democrat on recall ballot

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) sued his own elections chief after his party affiliation was not included on the recall ballot beside his name. 

Newsom filed a lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber because she did not fix a filing mistake that took Newsom’s political affiliation off the ballot about 16 months ago, according to Courthouse News.

The lawsuit alleges Weber can change the ballot to identify Newsom as a Democrat since she did not certify the recall and the lieutenant governor has not set the election date. 

Newsom’s Republican challengers will have their party affiliation on the ballot. 

The lawsuit says Newsom’s lawyers reached out to Weber saying it was a “good faith mistake,” but Weber rejected their call for the ballot to be changed.

“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 lawsuit says.

Weber confirmed last week that a petition to recall the Democrat had reached more than 1.7 million signatures — enough to trigger an election. The petition was started over Newsom’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. 

In April, the secretary of state’s office confirmed that the petition had enough signatures for a recall election, but, in accordance with California law, the state gave residents 30 days to remove their name from the recall effort. 

The election is only the second time in the state’s history a recall was triggered.