So what happens when a recall election is combined with plurality voting? California’s election rule adopts the majority system which means that Governor Gavin Newsom who is facing a recall could still get the most votes in a recall election and still lose his job. This story is by Ben Christopher in Cal Matters:

If recalls followed the rules of a normal California election — the person who wins a majority of the votes wins — then Gov. Gavin Newsom, an incumbent Democrat in a thoroughly Democratic state, would have nothing to worry about. 

But unfortunately for him, a California recall is not like an ordinary California election. 

“It really is its own animal,” said Ken Miller, a Claremont McKenna political science professor. One part standard-issue candidate race, one part free-spending ballot measure campaign, with a generous dash of political circus, California recalls adhere to a unique — and some critics say, less than fully democratic — procedure that makes for a much more unpredictable outcome.

Read the full article here.