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Supporters of a recall effort against Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said Wednesday they submitted thousands more signatures to county officials than are required to trigger a recall.
The Recall George Gascon campaign said it submitted 717,000 signatures to the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters. The group needs at least 566,857 of those to be verified to bring the recall question to voters in November.
"We believe we're submitting enough to qualify," recall group spokesman Tim Lineberger told Fox News on Tuesday. "I firmly believe if voters are given the chance at the ballot box, they will remove him in a landslide. I think it will be worse than what happened to Chesa Boudin in San Francisco."
Wednesday was the deadline for the group to turn in the petitions. The group said it had collected 150,000 signatures in the past three weeks after two El Monte police officers were killed.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY DA GEORGE GASCON PLEA TO SUPPORTERS ON RECALL: THEY WILL ‘REVERSE OUR PROGRESS’
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon is facing a recall effort after taking office in 2020. His opponents haver cited a crime wave and his progressive policies for the effort. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images | Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP)
Gascon came under pressure after it was revealed his office gave the suspect a plea deal instead of fully prosecuting him for a weapons charge, which could have kept him in jail at the time of the June 14 killings.
His opponents have painted him as soft on crime because of his progressive polices that critics say ignore victims and have allowed criminals to be given lenient sentences.
"He's saying ‘all of this is worth it and don’t go back on my version of reform just because a few people lost their life for something really bad that happened,'" Lineberger said. "I don't think that's an acceptable response to anybody living in Los Angeles, and especially the victims."
In addition, many of Gascon's own prosecutors support him being replaced.
In his defense amid an onslaught of bad publicity, Gascon has characterized the recall effort as a political power grab that is attempting to "circumvent the democratic process." In a fundraising message last week, he told his supporters that a successful recall could set his progressive agenda back.
"The Republican-led recall effort in L.A. is on the ‘cusp’ of qualifying for the ballot this November," he said. "And if they’re successful, they will reverse all our progress."
A spokesperson for the Gascon campaign told Fox News Digital on Wednesday it is waiting for the official count of validated signatures.
"This will likely take several weeks. In the meantime, we remain focused on the work of keeping communities safe and creating a more equitable justice system, as we have been since day one," the spokesperson said.
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The submission of petitions came weeks after Boudin was ousted in a recall election following criticism of his progressive policies that some argued contributed to a spike in crime in San Francisco.
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