Failed campaign to recall DA Gascon says will sue LA County Registrar office over voter numbers

The committee to recall Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon plans to sue the county registrar's office for allegedly inflating voter rolls and wrongfully invalidating signatures, resulting in a failed effort to ouster the progressive prosecutor.

The committee said Monday that "extremely disturbing findings" about such numbers "necessitate a complete and timely review of all invalidated signatures."

The committee also plans on filing a lawsuit for expanded access to information to review the signatures invalidated by the registrar's office.

The effort to hold a recall vote for Gascon failed in August after the Los Angeles County Registrar said nearly 200,000 of the more than 715,000 submitted signatures were invalid.

The office is reviewing the invalidated signatures. But committee leaders say the process will take over a year under the registrar's restrictions.

The county requires valid signatures from 10% of all registered voters – or more than 566,000 people – to hold a recall election.

The Recall Gascon campaign argued the requirement reflects "bloated voter rolls" and that as many as 550,000 people may be incorrectly listed on them.

If that campaign's estimate is correct, it may have had enough valid signatures, even without going back through the ones that were questionably invalidated.

Additionally, the campaign said that 39% of signatures may have been improperly invalidated. Some signatures were allegedly incorrectly invalidated by claiming the voters were "not registered" when they were, the campaign also argues.