With Election Day one week away, many Bay Area voters are raising key questions about complex processes that could be triggered in some cases.
In Alameda County, many are still unclear on who takes over if the Oakland mayor and district attorney are recalled. In San Francisco, some voters say they're still looking for a clear explanation on how ranked-choice voting will work in the mayor's race
Who takes over if Oakland mayor or Alameda County DA are recalled?
If Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is recalled, a special election will be held within four months to elect a new mayor. Until that happens, the Oakland City Council president would be the interim mayor.
For now, that’s Nikki Fortunato Bas. But Bas is running to be a county supervisor. If she won that race, she’d only serve as interim mayor for a month. Then the responsibility would fall to another council member, but some of those seats are up for election as well.
The end result is a little gray, experts say.
"But then that will really only be until the council reorganizes in the first week of January," UC Berkeley Professor Dan Lindheim said. "So even if Nikki, as council president, loses her supervisor election, it’s possible she wouldn’t continue as president of the council. So everything, in a sense, is up in the air."
Who takes over if the Alameda County DA is recalled?
As for Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, if she’s recalled, the county supervisors will appoint an interim district attorney to serve until 2026. Then another district attorney would need to serve the rest of Price’s term, which runs through 2028.
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How will ranked-choice voting determine the winner in San Francisco's mayoral race?
In San Francisco, ranked-choice voting will be used to elect the new mayor from a crowded field.
Under ranked-choice voting, instead of voting for just one candidate, voters rank the candidates one through 10 with one being their first choice, two their second choice, and so on.
If a candidate gets more than half the votes after the first choices are tallied, a winner is declared and the election is over. But if no one gets a majority, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and their supporters' second choice vote is now tallied. This process continues until one candidate wins the majority of the vote.
Due to the math involved, that could mean a candidate who received the most second choice votes could ultimately win the election.
Lindheim also explained why there’s controversy around recalling a candidate elected by ranked-choice voting, like Thao did two years ago.
"If a majority of the people didn’t support the person who won, then that same majority of the people can undo that person who won," he said. "That just makes it really difficult for anybody to really prevail with ranked-choice voting."
