The other sub has a good guide stickied. I encourage you all to review it. And I'll leave a simple version here.

There is a recall election going on for the California governor. There are two questions. The first is whether to recall the governor. The second is who should replace him.

You can vote NO on the first and still pick a backup in the second if you want. Or you can write someone in.

If the governor wins 50% of the vote then he can stay in office. His challengers only need a plurality of votes. This means someone with 9% of the vote could become governor despite the current governor receiving 49.99999% of the vote on whether he should remain in office. That someone with 9% of the vote could make some major decisions for the State.

What are some of those decisions and why is it important? The biggest issues I see are:

1) The governor's leadership guides the state's covid response.

2) We have an extremely old Senator, Dianne Feinstein. She's 88 years old and appears to be having age related health issues. If she dies the governor picks someone to fill her seat. This affects not just who represents California but also the balance of the Senate majority.

Return your vote-by-mail ballot by mail with prepaid postage as long as it's postmarked by September 14, 2021 or in-person to a secure ballot drop box, to a voting location or your county elections office by 8:00 p.m. on September 14, 2021.

Stay classy.

Edit: here's some more stuff about the recall if you're interested.