Pamela Price recall, Alameda County, California (2023-2024)

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Alameda County District Attorney recall
Officeholders
Pamela Price
Recall status
Underway
Signature requirement
73,195
See also
Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2023-2024 Recalls in California California recall laws County official recalls Recall reports

On April 30, 2024, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors accepted the county's April 15 certification of signatures submitted by the recall campaign against Pamela Price. Of the 123,374 signatures submitted by recall supporters, 74,757 met the validation requirements. The board will set a recall election date at a meeting on May 14, 2024. According to ABC 7, this will be the first time a district attorney has faced a recall election in Alameda County. Price was first elected in 2022 with 53.1% of the vote.

Save Alameda for Everyone initiated the recall in 2023. The group described itself as "[a] broad coalition of Alameda County residents, business owners, victims, victims’ families, and concerned citizens." The group said, "DA Price is failing us in her responsibility to enforce the law, prosecute criminals and keep violent offenders off our streets." The group said Price refused to charge cases, lowered sentences, and replaced prosecutors who resigned with unqualified individuals.

Price said Republican-connected special interest groups organized the effort. Price defended what she called her criminal justice reforms, including alternatives to incarceration, charging juveniles as juveniles, holding police accountable, and not adding enhancements to charges. Price said, "Any time that we can divert someone from the criminal justice system, that is a goal because the criminal justice system has shown to be racially biased. Often what studies have shown -- and it's true in Alameda County -- many times people who are perpetrators or labeled as perpetrators were actually victims."

To get the recall on the ballot, supporters needed to collect a number of signatures equal to 10% (73,195) of the number of registered voters in the county. The group submitted 123,374 signatures on March 4. On March 14, the county registrar’s office announced it had begun a manual count of the verified signatures after the state-authorized random sampling method could not determine if supporters had submitted enough valid signatures.

A March 18 KRON 4 report said Protect the Win, the group opposing the recall, submitted a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) asking him to investigate claims of signature fraud. According to the group: "Signature petitions were left unattended on tables and some signature gatherers were from outside the county and others from outside the state, which they say may be illegal. … some signers were lured to sign an unrelated petition, and then presented with the Price recall." Bonta’s office directed the petitioners to submit the allegations to California's secretary of state. Protect the Win has also asked the U.S. Attorney for Northern California to investigate the fraud allegations.

Jim Sutton, Price’s attorney, said the recall was illegal because "[w]e believe that the recall basically violates the law, because they did not count all their signatures by March 15, by 10 days after they turned in. And the charter says explicitly, the signatures have to be verified within 10 days."

Alameda County is a county in California. The county population is 1,682,353, according to the United States Census Bureau. The county seat is Oakland. There are 14 incorporated cities: Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Newark, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton, San Leandro, and Union City. Of those cities, Oakland and Fremont are within Ballotpedia's coverage scope. Also within the county are nine unincorporated communities: Ashland, Castlewood, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview, Happy Valley, Hillcrest Knolls, San Lorenzo, and Sunol.

About district attorneys

A district attorney is an elected official responsible for prosecuting crimes that occur within their jurisdiction. District attorneys may be elected by a county or some other designated district. These officials have the power to conduct a grand jury investigation, decide whether to prosecute an offender, and offer plea bargains.

Recall supporters

Recall supporters argue that Price should be recalled for leniency in sentence enhancements and her mishandling of homicide cases. Supporters contend that Price's criminal justice reforms hurt victims and their families by not going far enough to deliver justice.

Recall opponents

Price responded to the recall attempt by arguing that the effort was organized by Republican-connected special interest groups. Price also argued that sentencing enhancements propagate racial disparities and highlighted the need for alternatives to incarceration.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing recall in California

To get the recall on the ballot, recall supporters will need to collect a number of signatures equal to 10% of the number of registered voters in the county (more than 93,000 signatures).

Recall context

See also: Ballotpedia's Recall Report

Ballotpedia covers recall efforts across the country for all state and local elected offices. A recall effort is considered official if the petitioning party has filed an official form, such as a notice of intent to recall, with the relevant election agency.

The chart below shows how many officials were included in recall efforts from 2012 to 2023 as well as how many of them defeated recall elections to stay in office and how many were removed from office in recall elections.

See also

• Alameda County, California
• Recall campaigns in California
• Political recall efforts, 2023
• Political recall efforts, 2024
• County official recalls

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Office of the Alameda County District Attorney
• Official Election Site of Alameda County