# Californians: Who'll Enter The Recall? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 21, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909 "2003-07-21T13:58:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/81 "2003-08-08T18:40:24Z")
Each county holds a lottery of sorts and then chooses which letter goes first. Then there is a second lottery to see which second letter in a name gets priority. In other words DE could come before DA but after DO. And in each of the 58 counties there will be a different order. I think the election will be won or lost in Alpine County. [http://www.co.alpine.ca.us/](http://www.co.alpine.ca.us/) ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/82 "2003-08-08T21:26:40Z")
Check out the [list of candidate names](http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/recall_cand_status.pdf) from **Mehitabel’s** link. I especially like ‘Craig “Tax Freeze” Freis’ on page 1 and ‘Ralph S. “Rotten” Sherwood’ on page 7. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/83 "2003-08-08T22:01:17Z")
Craig “Tax Freeze” Freis is on the ballot for some office statewide pretty much all the time. He had “Tax Freeze” legally added to his name. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2003, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/84 "2003-08-09T14:24:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobT \* > \*\*Each county holds a lottery of sorts and then chooses which letter goes first. Then there is a second lottery to see which second letter in a name gets priority. > > In other words DE could come before DA but after DO. > > And in each of the 58 counties there will be a different order. > > I think the election will be won or lost in Alpine County. > [http://www.co.alpine.ca.us/](http://www.co.alpine.ca.us/) \*\* Uh-huh. :eek: Thanks for the answer. I guess this’ll stop illiterate voters from being told to choose the “third guy down in the second column” or whatever. Alpine County will be the one with hanging chads, I bet. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/85 "2003-08-09T16:14:27Z")
There was a mayoral election in Compton that had its result changed once or twice (I lost count) because one of the candidates made a persuasive argument to a judge that he lost only because the other guy was incorrectly listed first. I forget the utlimate outcome and if it’s like typical Compton politics, they will still be arguing about 20 years from now. I think when you vote in Alpine County, the registrar (Fred) comes up to the registered voter (Al) and just asks him. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2003, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/86 "2003-08-10T06:43:17Z")
I see that ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2003, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/87 "2003-08-10T06:47:22Z")
Ahem, trying again I see that today [AP](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=511&e=1&u=/ap/20030810/ap_on_el_gu/davis_recall) is listing the number of candidates as 130, meanwhile [the California Secretary of State](http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/recall_cand.htm) is listing the number is as 55. The wierd statistics continue. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/88 "2003-08-10T14:53:55Z")
Even more interesting is, according to your link, there are 100 people “under review”. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909/89 "2003-08-10T17:58:11Z")
The LA Times said that 158 people overall filed (the paper requires registration to view online though). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/californians-wholl-enter-the-recall/189909.md?page=4)