SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – The San Francisco Department of Elections cleared a campaign to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, which will allow them to collect signatures for a recall vote.

The coalition will be required to collect more than 51,000 signatures, roughly 10% of the city’s voters, by mid-August to qualify for a special election.

This move comes just over a year after Boudin took office.

Organizers of the effort say 51,000 voter signatures are a lot but they believe it’s achievable. They say this effort all started as a petition on change.org where they got more than 10,000 signatures in just four days.

The Department of Elections cleared the coalition to begin collecting signatures for a recall vote.

“One of the things that he promised as soon as he got into office was eliminated whole categories of crimes, quality of life crimes and this has led to green lighting by him and his office to allow criminals to run rampant in the city, all corners of the 49 square miles of San Francisco are targets now,” recall organizer Richie Greenberg said. 

Greenberg says this feeling is what motivated him and others to begin the recall effort. 

It’s scenes like smash-and-grabs, home burglaries, robberies, and even more crimes not caught on camera fueling the effort.

“We have seen the brazen robberies. We have seen daytime shootings. We have seen how residents, small business owners, and visitors alike to San Francisco have been targets,” Greenberg said. 

Supporters of Boudin agree that public safety issues need to be solved in San Francisco but argue that the data doesn’t agree with claims of Boudin being the sole reason for crime in the city.

When looking closer, city police data shows that violent crimes like homicide, rape and robbery were down in 2020 compared to 2019. However, burglary, arson, and vehicle thefts rose.

“I don’t think it’s accurate to say that all of this is happening because of DA Boudin. I think a lot of, unfortunately, these are the same folks that didn’t want to see him elected in the first place so I don’t think it’s as much about the data but I think it’s folks that didn’t support him when he ran continued not to support him,” Emily Lee, director of San Francisco Rising Action Fund, said.

KRON4 reached out to DA Boudin’s office for comment but have not heard back.

Signature gathering and petition download is expected to begin Friday, March 12th.