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California has finished its recall elections and the result is that Gavin Newsom remains the governor of that state. But the question is whether this leaves Californians completely happy, because now it’s time to do the math and find out how much this referendum really cost all taxpayers, regardless of whether or not they signed for the recall.
According to calculations, this electoral process had a cost of $ 276 million dollars. This is an estimate made of spending by each county in the state, which calculated $ 243. $ 6 million. And additional to this cost is added an amount of 32. 4 million dollars to be allocated to the Office of the Secretary of State, which is the entity in charge of carrying out this special electoral process . All these calculations have their origin in an analysis of the professor and scholar on the subject of international economics, Alejandro Díaz-Bautista.
In the month of June, projections indicated that the costs of these elections would be at least about $ 215 millions of dollars, an amount less than calculated than was actually spent.
Already at the time, the director of the California Department of Finance, Keely Martin Bosler, had mentioned that this calculation of $ 215 Millions of dollars did not reflect Secretary of State costs for an impeachment election.
But those are not the only costs that generates an electoral process, must also take into account the spending of the candidates in the campaign, including that of the governor whose mandate was questioned.
Orrin Heatlie, a former agent with the Northern California Sheriff’s Department, at the time dismissed the figures for total spending in an election and rather accused Newsom of spending money to please voters on the way to increase his tenure in political office.
Heatlie was referring to the governor’s proposals for new stimulus payments and the cash awards he offered as encouragement for citizens to go to be vaccinated.
“With the billions that this governor is spreading in retirement returns and antics on game shows, the cost of the elections is a small investment in the future of the state, ”emphasized Orrin Heatlie.
Previously a survey of California counties had determined that the costs of conducting a recall election would have as origin the urban centers of the state. And costs were estimated around:
- Los Angeles with $ 49. $ 1 million .
- Saint Bernardine with $ 32 millions of dollars.
- San Diego with an estimate of $ 20 millions of dollars.
- Alameda with $ 21 millions of dollars , which was considered quite high for the locality.
In fact, at the beginning of this whole process the costs had been calculated around $ 400 million dollars, because it was necessary to take into account everything related attached to “protection” to prevent the spread of Covid – 19, still present in our lives.
The truth is that the amount that must be paid for these recall elections is not to the total liking of Californians, regardless of the political opinion they have had on the petition for the impeachment of the current governor.
This is the second time in the history of the state of California that an attempt has been made to revoke the mandate of a governor, the previous one was in 2003 with Gray Davis, who after the recall was replaced by Arnold Schawarzenegger.
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