California Democratic legislators have amended one of the budget bills to alter procedures for recall petitions. SB 96 was introduced on January 11 and was strictly a budget bill. It passed the Senate on May 11. But on June 9, it was amended to include some provisions changing the law relative to recall elections. It says that signers may remove their names during the 30 days after a recall petition is submitted, and also extends the time for a recall to appear on the ballot, relative to when the petitions were submitted.

There is currently a recall underway against Democratic State Senator Josh Newman. Recall proponents have already submitted 31,000 signatures. If the bill is signed into law, it goes into effect immediately and would alter the rules for this recall. Provisions that allow signers to remove their names on petitions after it is too late for proponents to gather more signatures are fundamentally unfair. Proponents of petitions can never know if their petition will succeed, if signers can remove their names after the petition has been submitted. No one can predict how many signatures will be removed.

Extending the time between submission of a recall petition, and the date of the recall election, would have a different effect on the Newman petition. It would make it more likely that a recall would be held at the time of the regular June 2018 primary, instead of earlier as a stand-alone election.