Alameda County DA Pamela Price to face recall vote
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The Alameda County Registrar of Voters announced on Monday it received enough signatures for a recall election for District Attorney Pamela Price.
The county's registrar of voters certified 74,757 signatures on Monday.
Now, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will decide when the recall election could be held.
RELATED: Campaign to recall Alameda County DA Pamela Price submits signatures
It's the first time in Alameda County history that a district attorney has faced a recall election.
"This is the first time for us all," said Nate Miley, President of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
A group that calls itself SAFE, or 'Save Alameda for Everyone,' has been on the ground collecting signatures county-wide since October to recall Price.
Of the more than 123,000 signatures they collected and turned in last month, the Registrar of Voters says nearly 75,000 were valid, which is about 1,000 more than what was required to force a recall election (73,195).
"I cried, I cried for Kevin, because she can leave this office, she can continue her career elsewhere but Kevin can never get out of the grave, he can never be with his family again," said Virginia Nishita.
Virginia Nishita is the widow of retired police officer and TV news guard Kevin Nishita who was shot and killed while protecting a crew in Oakland more than two years ago.
VIDEO: Alameda Co. DA Pamela Price says she's being 'targeted' amid recall effort over progressive policies
"She needs to be recalled," she said. "When the first two defendants were arrested and getting prosecuted, they almost got out of jail because she had lowered so many of the charges that they almost got out of jail."
"We the voters have the right to hire you, but we are also the people who can fire you," said Carl Chan, SAFE's principal officer.
But the group wants voters to decide if Price should keep her job in a special election and not wait until to the November general election.
They urged the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to take this on by the end of the month.
"They're not prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law," said Brenda Grisham, SAFE's principal officer. "It's what they should be doing and so today we are here asking for what's right, it's for the board of supervisors to give us a special election in the next couple of months and not have us wait until November."
MORE: Supporters of Alameda County DA claim recall signatures are fraudulent
Miley says supervisors are still waiting to be briefed by county counsel to determine next steps, but he confirms supervisors will be discussing the timing of the recall election at their next meeting, two weeks from now on April 30.
"We're not sure if this will take place as a special election or will occur in the November general election, we still don't know that just yet," Miley said. "And I do anticipate that they'll be litigation."
Jim Sutton, the attorney representing Pamela Price, pointed out the more than 48,000 signatures that were invalid and said the signatures determined to be valid were not certified in time.
"We believe that the recall basically violates the law, because they did not count all their signatures by March 15, by 10 days after they turned in," Sutton said. "And the charter says explicitly, the signatures have to be verified within 10 days."
The ACLU of Northern California also opposes this recall effort.
"This recall effort should be viewed as part of the broader conservative nation-wide strategy to rollback criminal justice reforms that have been aimed at interrupting the cycles of mass incarceration of Black and brown people," said Yoel Haile, the Criminal Justice Program Director of the ACLU of Northern California.
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