Why are there so many candidates in the recall election?

For one thing, the threshold to become a candidate was fairly low. A California resident needed only to collect 65 valid nomination signatures from members of his or her political party and pay a $3,500 administrative filing fee. Democratic and Republican hopefuls could forgo paying the filing fee if they collected 10,000 additional signatures.

This contest also bypassed the traditional primary election, in which major political parties select one candidate from a field to be on the general election ballot.

A total of 135 candidates will be on the ballot.

Joel Rubin

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Submit questions on the recall process to “Recall Q&A;” at: metrodesk@latimes.com. Past questions and answers can be found on the Web at www.latimes.com/faq.