“That's nothing,” said Joe Holland, the Santa Barbara County registrar of voters who said the first election he oversaw was the 2003 recall election of former Gov. Gray Davis. “The cost of putting on a statewide recall pretty much falls to the counties.”
Across the state, counties are preparing their budgets for the next fiscal year that begins July 1, and many are just now beginning to discuss what it would cost to put on a statewide recall election if it qualifies.
Supporters must have about 1.5 million signatures by March 17 to qualify for the ballot. Organizers say they already have collected more than that, but it's unclear how many of those signatures will be valid. Republicans, meanwhile, are pouring cash into the effort as the signature-gathering deadline approaches.