By Roberta Millstein
If you are registered to vote in CA, you should have received your ballot for the election to recall Governor Gavin Newsom by now. If for some reason you aren’t registered, August 30 is the last day to register to vote; after that, you can “conditionally” register and vote at your county elections office or polling location after the voter registration deadline, up to and including Election Day (Sept 14).
Voting is easy! In Davis, there are several voting assistance centers and ballot drop boxes. See the graphic at the top or this page for details. Or you can mail in your ballot – it has to be postmarked by Sept. 14. Each ballot will come with prepaid postage. So no excuses not to vote. If you're not in Davis, check out your local options.
And your vote really matters in this election – even more so than usual – so please take the time to vote!
The biggest challenge that Governor Newsom has to overcome is voter apathy – people thinking they don’t need to vote because Newsom is a slam dunk (how’d that work out for Gray Davis?) or who just aren’t that excited about Newsom. Well, I have to admit I’ve not always been happy with his decisions, either. But then again, I can’t think of any politician in my lifetime I’ve been totally happy with.
Governor Newsom has done nothing bad enough to deserve a recall and the candidate everyone thinks will most likely win, Larry Elder, would be terrible. Elder thinks that people who are concerned about climate change are “alarmists,” he supports overturning Roe v. Wade, and he wants to eliminate the minimum wage (link). He would be terrible for California, especially if he had the opportunity to appoint a Senator if Senator Feinstein were to retire.
Davis tends to overwhelmingly vote Democratic, as does California as a whole. So if we mobilize to vote “NO” on recalling Governor Newsom, we can help make sure that California doesn’t head down a dangerous path. So please vote “NO” on question 1 on the ballot.
Question 2 is more complicated. The Democratic party and most Democratic organizations are either giving no advice on question 2 or advising people to skip that question. I think that’s a mistake. Apparently, they are worried people will be confused and think that they aren’t allowed to vote in the second question if they vote “no” on the first. I assure you, it is perfectly legitimate to vote “no” on the first question and still vote on question 2.
I mean, again, I hope that a majority of people vote “no” on question 1, making question 2 moot. But if that doesn’t happen, we want to make sure that we at least get the best person we can, and not Elder, or someone like Elder, who (by California’s ridiculous recall rules) can get elected with less than a majority of the votes.
I plan to vote for Daniel Kapelovitz for question 2. I fully admit that I have not researched all of the candidates. But he seems to have a reasonable amount of backing, he is a defense attorney (which I think provides some relevant experience), and he has a good platform, focusing on animal rights, action on climate change and the Green New Deal, Medicare for all, and more policies that I wholeheartedly support (see his platform here). He himself advocates voting “no” on question 1, which I admire. But if the majority votes “yes” on question 1, he is someone I’d be comfortable with in the governor’s office.
But if he is not the candidate you’d prefer, I urge you to look them over and vote for someone who you do like. To answer a frequently asked question – no, you cannot vote for Newsom, or write in Newsom, for the second question.
My point in recommending Kapelovitz is in the hope that we can focus our efforts on one alternative to Elder and the other Republicans. So please consider him, and, most importantly, please take the time to vote against the recall.
Davisite 
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