The Year in Recalls -- 77 officials ousted, 22 survive, 31 resign; 430+ recalls attempted

We're wrapping up another year with our year-end article in Plurbius News on the Year in Recalls, providing the year-end recap. Here's Ballotpedia's look, and they have similar results. 

Recalls continue last year's march towards normalcy, with 99 officials facing actual recall votes (in 17 states). This year seems to be the best percentage for recall proponents, with 77 losing and only 22 surviving. 31 officials also resigned in the face of recalls (the recalls were held for three of them anyway). About 430 recalls were attempted, though some of those recalls were from last year and just failed to turn in. It is also clear that we're missing some as well (always happens). 

Last year saw 89 recall elections, with 52 officials removed and 37 survived. There were 18 resignations. 

For some comparisons, In 2020 and 2021, voter anger over pandemic-era lockdowns inspired far more recall efforts. In 2021 alone, voters attempted to recall officials more than 600 times. In 2020, just 66 officials were forced into recall elections, and 14 more resigned before they had to face a recall. The same number, 66, faced recalls in 2021, and another 17 resigned early. 

In 2019, 87 officials faced a recall vote (37 removals, 16 resignations, 34 survived). In 2018 (which I never published) saw 150 recalls make the ballot or lead to a resignation, with 85 removals, 28 resignations and 37 survivals. In 2017, we had 102 recalls, 2016, we have 119 recalls. In 2015, there were 109; 2014 (which, I never actually wrote up), 126 recalls. In 2013, we had 107 recalls. 2012 we had 166, and a 2011 we had 151 (the numbers do not always exactly match up to the links – I checked back and found additional recalls and removed a few).

Some traditional caveats here:

• We are definitely missing recalls here. As I've mentioned many times before, the death of local newspapers is a disaster for local political coverage (not to mention for the country and democracy in general). The result is a number of recalls fall the cracks and are not reported on. Sometimes they pop up later.
• 2021 was the first time since I've been keeping track (since 2011) that more officials survived a recall vote than lost. 2022 is back to form.