Oakland’s district attorney recall is a reminder that voting matters
Zachary Faria
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One of the biggest things that residents of California’s liberal cities have learned since the start of the pandemic is that voting matters. Hopefully, they will stop relying on recall elections to bail them out after every mistake.
After just seven months on the job, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is being targeted by a recall. The group behind the recall has filed a notice of intent to recall, meaning that it will soon be able to start collecting the 90,000 signatures it needs to put the recall on the ballot. Given that crime in Oakland has spiraled out of control under Price’s “leadership” and that even the local and state chapters of the NAACP have called her out as a failure, it is very likely she will be recalled if it comes to a vote.
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The reason a pro-criminal district attorney like Price could come to power, though, is that the enthusiasm for the recall was not present in her initial election. Just over 271,000 people voted in the primary election in June 2022, and only over 430,000 voted in the general election that Price won in November. Alameda County has 931,367 registered voters, and not even half could be bothered to vote in the race to determine who would be prosecuting (or, in Price’s case, not prosecuting) career and violent criminals.
This is not the first city that this has played out in. San Francisco recalled pro-criminal District Attorney Chesa Boudin last year. Boudin was elected in 2019 as the first choice of just over 68,000 voters. He finished the ranked-choice voting with over 86,000 votes. His refusal to prosecute career criminals then led to him being recalled by over 122,000 voters in an election that had a higher turnout than his 2019 victory. Voters also recalled three school board members with a higher turnout than when those members were elected.
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While Price will likely be recalled if it comes to a vote, getting it on the ballot is its own challenge. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon was also likely to be recalled, but the measure failed to reach the ballot due to a lack of signatures (and some possible chicanery from the county’s top elections official). Had Los Angeles residents treated their vote seriously when Gascon was first elected, none of this would be necessary.
The same is true for Oakland and other Alameda County residents with Price. Her pro-criminal worldview is clearly disqualifying for just about any office, let alone the office responsible for prosecuting criminals. For the safety of Oakland residents, the recall will hopefully make the ballot, but the risks are clear, as are the consequences for the people who have already suffered under seven months of Price’s tenure.