Bid to Recall Davis Surges Ahead

Voting officials in California counties have received about 695,000 signatures supporting the recall of Gov. Gray Davis, according to a tally of results compiled Thursday by The Times.

If verified as the valid signatures of registered voters, they would represent about 75% of the 897,158 needed to force a recall election. Thursday’s figure is nearly double the official tally of 376,000 reported by the California secretary of state June 23.

Supporters of the recall say they have already sent 988,088 signatures to county registrars, bringing recall backers closer to their goal of 1.3 million signatures. The latter number would qualify the recall for a ballot without the need for a long and expensive hand count by county registrars and would preclude legal challenges from opponents.

Petitions are being mailed to registrars, and some of those officials, saying they are short of staff for the effort, are taking days to open boxes and check the petitions. So there often is a lag between the time that recall supporters say they have sent the signatures and the time they are recorded by registrars.

Still, either by the county figures or those supplied by the recall groups, the number is mounting. Backers of the effort were encouraged by the latest statistics and predicted that they would soon be over the top.

Recall supporters vow to wage a push this weekend, descending on parades, ballgames, malls and supermarkets, hoping to take advantage of July 4 crowds to gather the signatures that stand between them and a historic bid to throw a sitting California governor out of office.

“We will be done by this Monday,” vowed Dave Gilliard, director of Rescue California, the recall organization funded by gubernatorial hopeful Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista).

The July 16 deadline is particularly important to recall supporters, who hope to collect the minimum number of signatures in time for them to be hand-counted and certified before Sept. 4, the latest date on which a special November election could be ordered by Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.

Republican strategists believe that an autumn vote, which probably would produce a low turnout, would favor passage of the recall.

If the required signatures are collected and certified after Sept. 4, the recall will be put to voters as part of the March presidential primary election, which is likely to attract a higher -- and heavily Democratic -- turnout. That ballot will feature what is expected to be a hotly contested Democratic primary for president.

If backers can collect 1.3 million signatures before the six-month signature submission period expires Sept. 2, the recall will qualify for a ballot without the hand count.

This weekend’s efforts are likely to be concentrated in Southern California, where support for the recall has been strongest. Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties all reported receipt of more than 50,000 new signatures in the past week.

“Anywhere there’s a crowd, you should see a Rescue California signature gatherer,” Gilliard said Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday, Taxpayers Against the Governor’s Recall held a news conference in Los Angeles, where the group produced boxes that it said contained more than 1 million signatures on a nonbinding petition against the recall.

“They say they have a million signatures and that means Californians want to dump the governor,” said spokesman Nick Velazquez. “But we say, ‘Well, here’s a million Californians who don’t.’ ”