EXPLAINER: How can California voters recall Gov. Newsom?

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing the possibility that he could be removed by voters in a recall election in the middle of his four-year term. Organizers appear close to qualifying the election for the ballot, and the vote would likely take place later this year. Here's how it works:

WHAT IS A RECALL ELECTION?

California is one of 20 states that allow voters to initiate a recall election to remove a sitting governor. The state law establishing the rules goes back more than a century, to 1911, and was intended to place more power directly in the hands of voters by allowing them to recall elected officials and repeal or pass laws by placing them on the ballot. Recall attempts are not uncommon in the state, but they rarely get on the ballot and even fewer succeed. Unpopular Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was recalled in 2003, then replaced with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

WHY IS THERE A RECALL DRIVE AGAINST DEMOCRATIC GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM?

Newsom was elected in a 2018 landslide in the heavily Democratic state, but his popularity tumbled as public unrest spread over long-running coronavirus rules that shuttered schools and businesses, then a string of confusing decisions on vaccinations and re-openings. Meanwhile, he’s been contending with fallout from a multibillion-dollar fraud scandal at the state unemployment agency while weathering a public shaming for dining out with friends and lobbyists at an exclusive San Francisco Bay Area restaurant last fall, while telling residents to stay home for safety.

WHERE DOES IT STAND?

Supporters of the recall were required to gather 1,495,709 petition signatures to authorize the election. They say they have collected over 1.9 million signatures, though many of those remain under review by election officials and some will be invalidated for technical...