Fact check: Are California Democrats unfairly scrutinizing recall signatures?

Claim: Actor Kevin Sorbo on Monday claimed California requires signature verification for petitions to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, but not for mail-in ballots. His tweet implied the state is giving increased scrutiny to the Republican-led effort to oust the Democratic governor.

Sorbo’s tweet was shared more than 25,000 times by Tuesday, with Republicans like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee spreading the claim.

Rating: False

Details: California election officials verify the signatures on both mail-in ballots and recall petitions.

Sorbo, who is best known for his role as Hercules in the the 1990s television series “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” was swiftly rebuked by Democrats and fact-checkers after tweeting the claim on Monday, which implied that California was levying a stricter level of scrutiny for the recall than the 2020 general election, wherein more than 85% of California voters cast ballots through the mail.

According to Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber’s office, California county elections officials verify the signatures on every vote-by-mail ballot, initiative, referendum, or recall petition, and candidate nomination document. State code requires elections officials to compare the signature on a petition or ballot to the one in the voter’s registration record prior to counting it.

The effort to recall Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has picked up steam in recent weeks, thanks in part to some significant donations, including $250,000 from the national Republican party last week.

Organizers say they have collected the 1.5 million signatures needed to put the recall election on the ballot, but signatures must still be verified by county election officials.

That’s true of all initiatives, and its why the recall campaign has set a goal of collecting 2 million signatures when it technically needs only 1.5 million to qualify. According to a Jan. 27 report from the Secretary of State’s office about 85% of signatures submitted by the recall effort at that point were determined to be valid.

Recall proponents have until March 17 to gather the necessary signatures. After which, election officials have until April 29 to verify the signatures. From that point, the Secretary of State’s office has 10 days to determine if there are enough valid signatures to qualify the recall.

If the recall qualifies for the ballot, an election would likely be held around November or December, but, as some have pointed out, there is a provision of California law that allows a recall election to be consolidated with the nearest scheduled election, which could push it into spring 2022.

This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 1:00 PM.