Filing error means Gavin Newsom may not be listed as a Democrat on recall ballots

California recall ballots later this year may not list Gov. Gavin Newsom as a Democrat after what his campaign describes as a filing error that omitted his party preference.

In a court filing first reported by Courthouse News, the governor is suing Secretary of State Shirley Weber, whom Newsom appointed to the position, to let his campaign fix the error so Newsom can be identified as a Democrat on recall ballots.

Newsom has sought to portray the recall as a partisan effort by Republicans.

Previously, elected officials being recalled in California did not get to list their party preference on the ballot. Newsom acted to change that in 2019, before the current recall effort against him began, by signing a law he and lawmakers said would give voters more information. But that law requires officials to list their party preference when they officially respond to a recall effort against them, which Newsom did not do.

In the lawsuit submitted in Sacramento Superior Court on Monday, Newsom’s lawyers say he omitted his party preference in February 2020 when filing his answer to the petition seeking to remove him from office due to “an inadvertent but good faith mistake on the part of his elections attorney.” When he tried to correct the mistake on June 19, Weber declined to accept it, according to the filing.

Newsom’s lawyers argue that there Weber should allow him to correct the mistake because the specifics of the election, including what date it will be held and who will run to replace him, are not yet set.

Spokesmen for Newsom’s campaign directed The Sacramento Bee to the court filing and declined to comment further.

“The Secretary of State’s office has a ministerial duty to accept timely filed documents,” Weber’s office said in a statement. “Acceptance of filings beyond a deadline requires judicial resolution.”

This story was originally published June 28, 2021 at 10:02 PM with the headline "Filing error means Gavin Newsom may not be listed as a Democrat on recall ballots."