Elec. Code, § 11221 · Article 2. Recall Petitions
Elec. Code, § 11221
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
The number of qualified signatures required in order to qualify a recall for the ballot shall be as follows:
(a) In the case of an officer of a city, county, school district, community college district, county board of education, or resident voting district, but not including a judge of a superior court, the number of signatures shall be equal in number to not less than the following percent of the registered voters in the electoral jurisdiction:
(1) Thirty percent if the registration is less than 1,000.
(2) Twenty-five percent if the registration is less than 10,000 but at least 1,000.
(3) Twenty percent if the registration is less than 50,000 but at least 10,000.
(4) Fifteen percent if the registration is less than 100,000 but at least 50,000.
(5) Ten percent if the registration is 100,000 or above.
(b) For purposes of this section, the number of registered voters shall be calculated as of the time of the last report of registration by the county elections official to the Secretary of State pursuant to Section 2187, and prior to the finding by the elections official or Secretary of State that no alterations are required in the form of the recall petition pursuant to Section 11042.
(c) (1) In the case of a state officer, including a judge of a court of appeal, and in the case of a judge of a superior court, the number of signatures shall be as provided for in subdivision (b) of Section 14 of Article II of the California Constitution. In the case of a judge of a superior court, which office has never appeared on the ballot since its creation, or did not appear on the ballot at its last election pursuant to Section 8203, the number of signatures shall be as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 14 of Article II of the California Constitution, except that the percentage shall be based on the number of votes cast within the judicial jurisdiction for the countywide office which had the least number of votes in the most recent general election in the county in which the judge holds office.
(2) For purposes of this subdivision, “countywide office” means an elective office wholly within the county which is voted on throughout the county.
(d) In the case of a landowner voting district, signatures of voters owning at least 10 percent of the assessed value of land within the electoral jurisdiction of the officer sought to be recalled.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 304, Sec. 8. (AB 1513) Effective January 1, 2026.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=ELEC§ionNum=11221.
- Text hash
- sha256 107da716ccf571c05a7ab3b9e1573871358b3254fea3a785e73413da5be461e6
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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