Welcome to November – election day is tomorrow!

By

Samuel Wonacott

Welcome to the Monday, November 1, Brew. 

By: Samuel Wonacott

Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

  1. An overview of the races we’ll be covering on Election Day
  2. A look at 2021 election administration-related ballot measures
  3. Certified California recall results

Election Day preview

Nov. 2 is Election Day. While 2021 is an odd-numbered election year, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of races to watch—races at the federal, state, and local levels. Let’s walk through the elections we’ll be covering tomorrow. 

Federal offices

We’re covering four special congressional elections:

Statewide offices

Statewide offices up for election on Nov. 2 include gubernatorial seats, lieutenant gubernatorial seats, an attorney general seat, and a state supreme court seat.

State legislative offices

Three of the country’s 99 state legislative chambers are holding regularly-scheduled elections on Nov. 2. Elections in those three chambers represent 220 of the country’s 7,383 state legislative seats (2.9%).

Local offices

We’re covering elections in 43 cities and county elections in 13 counties. Seventeen of those cities are holding general elections for mayor on Nov. 2. 

Here are the city battleground elections we’ll be following tomorrow:

Click here to see a list of all municipal elections we’re covering Nov. 2.

Additionally, we’re covering elections for 202 school board seats in 60 school districts. 

Here are the school board battleground elections we’ll be following tomorrow:

Click here to see a list of all school board elections we’re covering Nov. 2. 

Ballot measures

There are 24 statewide ballot measures up for a vote on Nov. 2. Additionally, we are covering over 150 local ballot measures across 18 states. 

Here’s a handful of our top 15 ballot statewide and local measures to watch tomorrow:

Keep reading

Election and voting policy ballot measures 

As mentioned above, we’re covering 24 statewide ballot measures on Nov. 2, along with local ballot measures in 18 states. Those measures touch on topics as wide-ranging as sports betting, redistricting, and drug policy. Here, we want to highlight several measures related to election and voting policy. 

The 2020 election cycle was highlighted by a variety of election and voting policy changes. Those issues will go before voters in a variety of ways tomorrow.  Here are two statewide measures and three local measures on Nov. 2 that affect election or voting policy. 

Keep reading 

Results of Newsom recall certified

Earlier this year, California held a recall where voters decided not to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). On Oct. 22, 2021, California certified the results of the Sept. 14 recall election targeting Newsom. Of the 12.8 million voters who participated in the election, 61.9% voted to retain Newsom, and 38.1% voted to recall. 

In 2021, 51.9% of eligible voters cast a vote in the recall election. In 2018, when Newsom was first elected, turnout for the gubernatorial election was 49.5%. In the 2003 recall election against Gov. Gray Davis (D), 42.12% of those eligible voted. Turnout was 34.83% in the 2002 gubernatorial general election, when Davis was elected. 

Forty-six candidates, including nine Democrats and 24 Republicans, ran in the 2021 recall election. 

Since 1911, there have been 55 attempts to recall a California governor. The only successful recall campaign was in 2003 when voters recalled then-Gov. Gray Davis (D). Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) was elected as Davis’ replacement. In that election, 135 candidates ran and the winner received 48.6% of the vote. 

Keep reading