Newsom voices support for raising California recall requirements after resounding victory

The day after defeating the effort to oust him from office, California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared to voice support for an effort to make it harder for Golden Staters to recall elected officials.

According to the latest unofficial results from election officials, roughly 64% of Californians voted no – meaning against removing Newsom from office – in Tuesday's recall election, with just 36% casting ballots to oust the first-term Democratic governor. Newsom’s margin beat expectations, topping the final public opinion polls heading into the election, which suggested the governor would survive by a much smaller double-digit margin.

Democratic state lawmakers, who hold super majorities in both chambers of the California legislature, are already pushing to implement changes to make it harder to launch recalls in the future. Among the changes: upping the number of signatures needed to land a recall on the ballot, raising the standards of wrongdoings by elected officials to spur a recall, and changing the current process. Currently, the candidate who wins the most votes among the replacement candidates – no matter how small their total – becomes governor if the recall is successful.