The following are the results of the 2003 California recall election held on October 7, 2003 which unseated Gray Davis and propelled actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the governorship.

It was a two-question ballot, with the first question being whether the sitting governor should be recalled. The second question was to decide who ought to replace the governor, in case a majority voted yes on the recall question.

The voters of California decided to recall governor Gray Davis by a 5 to 4 margin (55.4% in favor of recall vs. 44.6% against recall).

There were more votes for Schwarzenegger than for the next three candidates combined, including fellow Republican McClintock. Voters elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to become Davis's replacement by a plurality of 48.6% to runner-up Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's 31.5%.

Following the election, all 58 of California's counties had 28 days (until November 4, 2003) each to conduct a countywide canvass of their votes. Counties used this time to count any absentee ballots or provisional ballots not yet counted, to reconciliate the number of signatures on the roster of registered voters with the number of ballots recorded on the ballot statement, to count any valid write-in votes, to reproduce any damaged ballots, if necessary, and to conduct a hand count of the ballots cast in 1% of the precincts, chosen at random by the elections official.

Counties then had 7 days from the conclusion of canvassing (November 11, 2003, 35 days after the election) to submit their final vote totals to the California Secretary of State's office. The Secretary of State had to certify the final statewide vote by 39 days (until November 15) after the election. The vote was officially certified on November 14, 2003. Once the vote was certified, governor-elect Schwarzenegger had to be sworn-in to office within 10 days. His inauguration took place on Monday, November 17, making Schwarzenegger the 38th Governor of California.

Source of election numbers: California Secretary of State's website

Certified election results

Shall Gray Davis be recalled (removed) from the office of Governor?

Yes 4,976,193 votes 55.4%
No 4,007,753 votes 44.6%
Votes Not Cast 429,431 4.6% of ballots

Candidates to succeed Gray Davis as Governor if he is recalled:

Candidate Party Number of votes Percent of votes
Arnold Schwarzenegger Republican 4,206,217 48.6
Cruz M. Bustamante Democrat 2,724,852 31.5
Tom McClintock Republican 1,161,264 13.5
Peter Miguel Camejo Green 242,247 2.8
Arianna Huffington (had dropped out of race) Independent 47,505 0.6
Peter V. Ueberroth (had dropped out of race) Republican 25,134 0.3
Larry Flynt Democrat 17,458 0.3
Gary Coleman Independent 14,242 0.2
George B. Schwartzman Independent 12,382 0.2
Mary Cook Independent 11,179 0.2
Bruce Martin Margolin Democrat 9,188 0.2
Bill Simon (had dropped out of race) Republican 8,913 0.2
Van Vo Republican 7,226 0
John Christopher Burton Independent 6,748 0
David Laughing Horse Robinson Democrat 6,496 0
Leo Gallagher Independent 5,466 0
Cheryl Bly-Chester Republican 5,297 0
Lawrence Steven Strauss Democrat 5,245 0
Ronald Jason Palmieri Democrat 4,221 0
Calvin Y. Louie Democrat 3,906 0
Badi Badiozamani Independent 3,404 0
Audie E. Bock Democrat 3,358 0
Ralph A. Hernandez Democrat 3,199 0
Edward Thomas Kennedy Democrat 3,007 0
Dan Feinstein Democrat 2,927 0
Bob McClain Independent 2,857 0
James Henry Green Democrat 2,848 0
Garrett Gruener Democrat 2,562 0
Angelyne Independent 2,536 0
Paul Mariano Democrat 2,455 0
Ivan Alexander Hall III Green 2,346 0
Jim Weir Democrat 2,328 0
Jerome Kunzman Independent 2,317 0
Ned Fenton Roscoe Libertarian 2,250 0
Georgina Russell Democrat 2,216 0
Jonathan D. Miller Democrat 2,214 0
Jack Loyd Grisham Independent 2,200 0
Christopher Sproul Democrat 2,039 0
Daniel T. Watts Green 2,021 0
Ken Hamidi Libertarian 1,948 0
Marc Valdez Democrat 1,840 0
Frank A. Macaluso, Jr. Democrat 1,801 0
Daniel C. Ramirez Democrat 1,778 0
Randall D. Sprague Republican 1,771 0
Brooke Adams Independent 1,713 0
Mohammad Arif Independent 1,709 0
Nathan Whitecloud Walton Independent 1,697 0
John J. "Jack" Hickey Libertarian 1,689 0
Mike Schmier Democrat 1,652 0
C.T. Weber Peace & Freedom 1,626 0
Diana Foss Democrat 1,577 0
Michael J. Wozniak Democrat 1,562 0
B.E. Smith Independent 1,545 0
Lingel H. Winters Democrat 1,466 0
Richard J. Simmons Independent 1,422 0
Joe Guzzardi Democrat 1,419 0
Mike P. McCarthy Independent 1,351 0
Art Brown Democrat 1,344 0
Leonard Padilla Independent 1,343 0
Iris Adam Natural Law 1,297 0
Maurice J. Walker Green 1,236 0
Trek Thunder Kelly Independent 1,210 0
Vikramjit S. Bajwa Democrat 1,168 0
David Ronald Sams Republican 1,166 0
Darin Price Natural Law 1,152 0
Charles "Chuck" Pineda Jr. American Independent 1,104 0
John "Jack" Mortensen Democrat 1,078 0
Sara Ann Hanlon Independent 1,077 0
Diane Beall Templin American Independent 1,067 0
Dick Lane Democrat 1,065 0
Jim Hoffmann Republican 1,046 0
William B. Vaughn Democrat 1,028 0
C. Stephen Henderson Independent 989 0
Robert C. Newman II Republican 987 0
Jamie Rosemary Safford Republican 943 0
Robert C. Mannheim Democrat 914 0
Dorene Musilli Republican 907 0
Scott A. Mednick Democrat 903 0
A. Lavar Taylor Democrat 851 0
Brian Tracy Independent 842 0
Kurt E. "Tachikaze" Rightmyer Independent 837 0
Christopher Ranken Democrat 823 0
Sharon Rushford Independent 821 0
Darrin H. Scheidle Democrat 814 0
Patricia G. Tilley Independent 792 0
Darryl L. Mobley Independent 778 0
Alex-St. James Republican 771 0
Bob Lynn Edwards Democrat 758 0
Douglas Anderson Republican 754 0
Joel Britton Independent 751 0
Michael Jackson Republican 746 0
Ed Beyer Republican 727 0
Paul "Chip" Mailander Democrat 715 0
John W. Beard Republican 699 0
Paul James Nave Democrat 679 0
Robert Cullenbine Democrat 632 0
Warren Farrell Democrat 626 0
Chuck Walker Republican 623 0
William S. Chambers Republican 610 0
Vip Bhola Republican 607 0
Gerold Lee Gorman Democrat 598 0
Dennis Duggan McMahon Republican 591 0
James M. Vandeventer, Jr. Republican 588 0
Eric Korevaar Democrat 586 0
Kelly P. Kimball Democrat 582 0
Mike McNeilly Republican 581 0
S. Issa Republican 554 0
Gino Martorana Republican 532 0
Richard Andrew Gosse Republican 497 0
Tim Sylvester Democrat 489 0
Bill Prady Democrat 474 0
Bryan Quinn Republican 474 0
Jeffrey L. Mock Republican 455 0
Paul W. Vann Republican 452 0
Michael Cheli Independent 451 0
Heather Peters Republican 444 0
Jeff Rainforth Independent 425 0
Ronald J. Friedman Independent 419 0
Todd Carson Republican 386 0
Scott W. Davis Independent 384 0
Daniel W. Richards Republican 383 0
Carl A. Mehr Republican 376 0
Lorraine Fontanes Democrat 365 0
Gary Leonard Democrat 359 0
Gregory J. Pawlik Republican 349 0
Jon William Zellhoefer Republican 346 0
Reva Renee Renz Republican 333 0
Kevin Richter Republican 305 0
Stephen L. Knapp Republican 298 0
William James Tsangares Republican 281 0
D. (Logan Darrow) Clements Republican 274 0
Robert A. "Butch" Dole Republican 273 0
David E. Kessinger Democrat 261 0
Gene Forte Republican 235 0
Todd Richard Lewis Independent 192 0
Mathilda Karel Spak (write-in) Independent 16 0
Jason Alan Gastrich (write-in) Republican 11 0
Monty Manibog (write-in) Democrat 11 0
Thomas "Tom" Benigno (write-in) Independent 7 0
R. Charlie Chadwick (write-in) Independent 7 0
Shirley Coly (write-in) Independent 5 0
Jane H. Dawson (write-in) Democrat 5 0
Pauline Cooper (write-in) Democrat 4 0
Paul Walton (write-in) Independent 4 0
Jim "Poorman" Trenton (write-in) Republican 3 0
Wignes K. Warren (write-in) Democrat 3 0
Christy Cassel (write-in) Independent 2 0
Jacques Andre Istel (write-in) Republican 2 0
Christian F. Meister (write-in) Democrat 2 0
Vincent Pallaver (write-in) Independent 2 0
Lincoln Pickard (write-in) Democrat 2 0
Lynda L. Toth (write-in) Democrat 2 0
Donald P. Wang (write-in) Republican 0
Robert D. Gibb (write-in) Democrat 1 0
Ronald W. Spangler (write-in) Independent 1 0
Bill Thill (write-in) Democrat 1 0
Jurlene Jeanne Kokoa White (write-in) Democrat 1 0
Joel Wirth (write-in) Republican 1 0
Donnie Adlen (write-in) Democrat 0 0
Harry William Braun (write-in) Democrat 0 0
Yancey Hawkins (write-in) Independent 0 0
Charles J. Hennegan (write-in) Republican 0 0
Ruth Anson Sowby (write-in) Republican 0 0
Votes Not Cast 755,575 8.0% of ballots