With Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price facing a serious recall effort, the county Board of Supervisors is seizing the opportunity to weaken the county’s recall law. The proposal is deceptively simple: “California state law applicable to the recall of county officers shall govern the recall of County of Alameda elected officers.” Making this change and linking Alameda County’s recall procedure to state law may create rather than solve problems, dilute the local electorate’s direct democracy powers, and cede local control to the state.

The background here is a wily move by the state legislature. After Gov. Gavin Newsom easily won his recall vote in 2022, legislators went on the attack against the century-old direct democracy device. They passed a law to “reform” the recall on the local level with several changes, many of which help delay recalls from moving to the ballot. And one major change abolished the replacement race for recalled local officials. Under the new law, affected localities must use the “automatic replacement” or “by law” model, where the official is replaced by succession or by appointment. This means that the affected local voters may no longer choose the new official who will replace the recalled officer.