California recall election, 2003

자료: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_California_recall

he 2003 California recall election was a special electionpermitted under California law. It resulted in voters replacing incumbent Democratic Governor Gray Davis with RepublicanArnold Schwarzenegger. The recall effort spanned the latter half of 2003. Other California governors, including Pat Brown,Ronald Reagan, Jerry Brown, and Pete Wilson, had faced recall attempts, but these attempts were unsuccessful. 

After several legal as well as procedural efforts failed to stop it, California's first-ever gubernatorial recall election was held onOctober 7, and the results were certified on November 14, 2003, making Davis the first governor recalled in the history of California, and just the second in U.S. history. (The first was North Dakota's Lynn Frazier in 1921. A common misconception is that Arizona governor Evan Mecham was recalled in 1988. However, he was impeached before this qualified recall election could occur.) California is one of only 15 states that allows recalls.

California law

California Secretary of State building on October 7, 2003.

Any elected official may be the target of a recall campaign. To trigger a recall election, proponents of the recall must gather a certain number of signatures from registered voters within a certain time period. The number of signatures must equal 12% of the number of votes cast in the previous elections. For the 2003 recall elections, that meant a minimum of 900,000 signatures, based on the November 2002 statewide elections.

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