California: Newsom's turnout much better in recall than in 2022 election

Not a surprise here, but turnout for the 2021 recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom was much greater than the 2022 election. The no vote on recall got 7.944 million votes in 2021, while Newsom got 6.47 million in 2022. As we've mentioned before (and was apparent in the 2003 recall campaigns) turnout can be much higher for a recall. In a very unusual election where Democrats did great in some states, but also did very poorly in some big states (notably NY and Florida), perhaps the Republicans could have missed an opportunity to at least perform better in November had they not tried the recall.