What You Need to Know About the Effort to Recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price

With less than two months to go until the November general election, KQED reporters are here to answer your questions about local, state and national races to get you ready for Election Day.

Next Tuesday, I’ll answer questions from readers about the effort to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao — which Oakland voters will also weigh in on in November. Sign up for KQED’s free News Daily email so you don’t miss any answers.

Let’s dive in.

Why are Oakland voters being asked whether to recall DA Pamela Price?

The Alameda County charter gives residents the power to put a recall on the ballot if they can collect the requisite number of signatures in support. In Alameda County, that threshold is 15% of the number of residents who voted in the previous election for governor.

Price won her 2022 election with 53% of the vote.

She positioned herself as a “progressive prosecutor” and ran on a platform that promised not to charge minors as adults and to reduce the use of sentencing enhancements, which legal experts say are disproportionately applied to people of color.

The group leading the campaign to recall Price, called Save Alameda for Everyone, told KQED they began working on the effort in April 2023, three months after Price took office. They say her policies contributed to a rise in crime in Oakland that year (Oakland Police Department data shows violent crime rose 21% in 2023 but is declining so far this year). Her opponents also include a handful of crime victims and victims’ advocates who say the DA’s Office sought inappropriately lenient sentences and failed to offer them the necessary support.

Price’s supporters say it’s unfair to blame her policies for the rise in crime in 2023, citing the National Institute of Justice’s research finding that longer prison terms do not deter crime. Additionally, they note that Price has only been in office for less than two years, and the impact of her policies is still not evident. They say recall supporters are bankrolled by a few wealthy people who are bitter that Price was elected in 2022 and are now trying to undo the will of the voters.

The recall campaign officially filed paperwork with the county in July 2023. It hired and deployed signature gatherers, an effort primarily funded by a handful of wealthy individuals with connections to real estate, tech and investment banking. In April 2024, the county Registrar of Voters office announced the group had submitted enough valid signatures to put the recall question on the November ballot.

If the recall is successful, how will a new DA be chosen? Will there be an interim DA?

If Price is recalled in November, the county Board of Supervisors would appoint an interim district attorney. That person would serve in the position for two years until the next regularly scheduled election in 2026 when voters would elect a new DA to finish out Price’s term, which ends in 2028. (Thanks to a 2022 state law, Price is serving an irregular six-year term. The next regular DA term, beginning January 2029, will go back to being a four-year term.)