The effort to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao advanced this week, as the Alameda County Registrar of Voters confirmed June 18 that proponents had garnered sufficient signatures. Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao (OUST) submitted more than 40,000 petitions, ahead of the July 22 deadline, with the intent to get the recall placed on the November ballot. “This historic achievement marks the first recall in Oakland’s history, with over 40,000 Oakland voters signing with a sense of urgency and purpose to recall this dishonest and incompetent mayor,” said OUST President Brenda Harbin-Forte, a retired Alameda County Superior Court judge, in a statement sent to The Epoch Times.
The recall petitions submitted to the city surpassed the 24,644 valid signatures required, according to the organization. “It shows that people want her gone,” Seneca Scott, one of the key organizers and a former mayoral candidate, told The Epoch Times. “It’s not simply a job performance issue, it’s about her integrity, her competence, her missing the retail [theft] grant, her bankruptcy of the city’s budget.
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It’s just all too much.” The state made available $240 million in retail-theft grant money to cities that applied, but the city auditor found, “Oakland prepared but did not successfully submit an application.” According to the Oakland Police Department, violent crime rose 21 percent in 2023 from the previous year, with robberies increasing 40 percent overall and residential r.
