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
Shall Gray Davis be recalled (removed) from the office of Governor?
Certified election results
| 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 | |