CALIFORNIA—On August 15, the Los Angeles County Clerk Registrar Office announced that the effort to recall LA County District Attorney George Gascon failed. A total of 520,000 signatures out of 715,833 submitted were validated.

The mandatory number of signatures to be collected was 566,867. According to the Registrar’s office, the number of signatures was approximately 10 percent of the registered voters in LA County.

“Grateful to move forward from this attempted political power grab-rest assured LA County, the work hasn’t stopped,” said Gascon.

On February 22, the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys took a vote whether to support the recall. A total of 83.3 percent of the prosecutors voted, and 97.9 percent supported the recall.

Canyon News spoked to the LARCC about the verified signatures for the recall effort. Mike Santez stated the signatures were verified by the office of the Registrar’s Recorder/County Clerk and referred the news release on www.lavote.gov. There was a discrepancy initially reported by the media and the LARCC Office.

Crime in Los Angeles County continues to surge, as detailed in crime statistics on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department website are from 1925-2020.

Gascon has been accused of being soft on crime since taking office. He issued a set of directives including, in many cases, a prohibition on filing and sentencing enhancements, a ban on transferring juvenile defendants to be tried in adult court for violent offenders, and an end to the death penalty.

The recall effort indicated that Gascon abandoned crime victims and their families, disregarded the rule of law, weakened sentencing requirements for violent crimes, and reduced sentences on hate crimes, gang, and gun violence.

Ballotpedia reports that the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Alex Villanueva, former Los Angeles County District Attorney, Steve Cooley, former Los Angeles County Supervisor, Mike Antonovich, and the former L.A. City Councilman, Dennis Zine all supported the recall.

Gascon assumed office on December 7, 2020, defeating Jackie Lacey with 53.5 percent of the vote. His current term ends December 1, 2024.