George Gascon Remains as Los Angeles County District Attorney as Recall Petition Fails
A recall petition against Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has failed after being found insufficient to qualify for a ballot.
Fox News reported that all 715,833 signatures submitted for the recall of Gascon were examined and verified by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorded/County Clerk Dean C. Logan.
Logan's office released a statement noting that 530,020 signatures were found to be valid while 195,783 were found to be invalid. The recall petition needed 566,857 valid signatures to qualify for the recall for the ballot.
The press release officially announced that the recall petition has failed to meet the sufficiency requirements, adding that there would be no further action to take on the petition.
Over 88,000 of the signatures were not registered while 43,593 were duplicates. Meanwhile, 32,187 were different addresses, with 9,490 being mismatched signatures.
There were also canceled signatures with a total of 7,344; out-of-county addresses signatures were found to be 5,374 and more than 9,300 were identified in the category of "other."
Gascon has expressed gratitude on a Twitter post after signatures were found invalid to qualify for a ballot. He noted that he was grateful "to move forward from this attempted political power grab-test."
Gascon added in his tweet that LA County's work has not stopped.
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Recall Petition Against Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon
The Guardian noted that the failure of recall petition against Gascon is considered to be a "victory for criminal justice reform advocates."
Meanwhile, the failure to remove Gascon in the middle of his first term is a "major blow to police unions and conservative groups." Police unions and conservative organizations have strongly opposed efforts to reduce mass incarceration and hold officers accountable for misconduct.
It was not the first time that Gascon faced a recall petition against him. The first recall effort also failed after it did not collect enough signatures.
Gascon leads the largest prosecutor's office in the country. He ran for the position promoting criminal justice reform.
Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance of California, said in a statement that Los Angeles' criminal justice reform movement has held out as the community "prefers facts over misplaced fear."
DeBerry added that with the failed recall, those who oppose the reform will have to review the data, "science and the future," instead of using "ineffective models."
Gascon is known to champion opposition to the death penalty, as well as the reopening of cases of killings by police and prosecuting youth as adults, among others.
DA George Gascon
In July, Gascon expressed his intention to change the death sentence of Raymond Oscar Butler, 47, turning it into life in prison without parole. Butler was known to fatally shot Marymount College film students Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura through the backs of their heads.
The killing has sparked international outrage, which urged the U.S. ambassador to issue a broadcast apology to Japan, according to Next Shark report.
Gascon has faced criticisms and "rightwing backlash" with the measures he is pushing forward.
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This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: Effort to recall LA County DA George Gascón fails for second time - from CBS Los Angeles
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