Sound familiar? GOP's Larry Elder predicts defeat in California recall election, blames voter fraud and calls for investigation - hours before polls even close
Republican Larry Elder appears to be ready for defeat in Tuesday's gubernatorial recall election in California and is prepping for the next step - fighting the results with a website the declares Governor Gavin Newsom already has been 'reinstated.'
Elder's campaign launched a 'Stop California Fraud' website that asks his supporters to report incidents of voter fraud and sign a petition to investigate the election results.
His move comes before a single ballot is reported and is seen as laying the groundwork to argue that Democrats stole the election, a line used by Donald Trump in the wake of Joe Biden's victory in 2020.
FiveThirtyEight.com's compilation of polls showed on Monday that 57.5 per cent of California voters wanted Newsom to stay in office, while 40.8 per cent planned to vote for his removal.
A month ago, polls were essentially tied among Californians who planned to vote 'no' on the recall, which would allow the Democrat to remain, and those who planned to vote 'yes,' to oust him.
There are two questions on the ballot: Whether to keep Newsom as governor and, if not, to choose a Newsom replacement, which is where Elder leads among 46 candidates. That includes Caitlyn Jenner, who is polling in single digits but not ruling out another run for public office.
The language on the voter fraud website assumes the Democratic governor triumphed in the recall election and is staying in office. Elder's campaign is paying for the website.
'We implore you…our fellow citizens…to join us in this fight as you are able, primarily by signing our petition demanding a special session of the California legislature to investigate and ameliorate the twisted results of this 2021 Recall Election of Governor Gavin Newsom,' the site reads.
Elder's actions mirror those of Trump, who touts the 'big lie' - his false claim he won the 2020 presidential election instead of Joe Biden - and the conservative talk radio host has touted his ties to the former president as he worked the campaign trail.
The website also claims - without proof - voter fraud has been detected in the California contest: 'Statistical analyses used to detect fraud in elections held in 3rd-world nations (such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran) have detected fraud in California resulting in Governor Gavin Newsom being reinstated as governor.'
And it reminds voters they have the 'ammo box' as an option.
'They say that in America, there are four boxes of liberty. The soapbox, the ballot box, the jury box, and the ammo box,' the website reads. 'Will we now have to fight the California jury box, in the hope that the final box — the one most akin to Pandora's — remains closed?'
Republican Larry Elder appears to be ready for defeat in Tuesday's gubernatorial recall election in California
Elder's campaign set up a website to cast doubt on Tuesday's election results and to lay the groundwork to argue that Democrats stole the election
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is favored to stay in office
There was no evidence of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election and multiple recounts confirmed Biden's victory. There also has not been any evidence of massive voter fraud in California's election.
Some political analysts worry casting seeds of doubt about election results could become the new normal for losing candidates.
'This is really becoming the standard GOP playbook,' Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the New America think tank who studies democracy, told NBC News. 'This is democracy 101. If you don't have elections that are accepted and decisive, then you don't really have a democracy, because the alternative is violence or authoritarianism.'
Elder told reporters in the state on Monday that 'there might very well be shenanigans' in the election.
He said his campaign is ready to file lawsuits.
'What I believe is that no matter what they do - and I believe that there might very well be shenanigans, as it were in the 2020 election - no matter what they do, so many Californians are angry about what's going on,' he said.
Trump is also already questioning the recall results, pointing to California's use of mail-in ballots.
'Does anybody really believe the California Recall Election isn't rigged? Millions and millions of Mail-In Ballots will make this just another giant Election Scam, no different, but less blatant, than the 2020 Presidential Election Scam!' Trump wrote in a statement Monday.
More than 6 million ballots have been cast as of Wednesday in the California recall election with 53% of those coming from Democratic households.
'We should all be concerned about election integrity and we all want every proper vote to be counted. We've provided a link to an outside website that is providing an avenue for voters to document irregularities they encounter in this election,' Elder spokesperson Ying Ma of the site.
California has long used voting by mail but this is the first race every active, registered voters were sent a ballot, which has stroked rumors and conspiracy theories in the lead up to election day.
Polls show Newsom in a comfortable lead and his campaign sounds confident of victory.
'There's no scenario where we lose tomorrow,' Newsom campaign adviser Sean Clegg told reporters Monday night in Long Beach. 'I may have a lot of Clegg on my face tomorrow, but I don't see a scenario where we're not talking about a victory for the governor,' he jokingly added.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (left) campaign believes he'll sail to victory in Tuesday's recall race in the state. On Monday night he was joined at a Long Beach rally with President Joe Biden (center) and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom (right)
Republican conservative radio show host Larry Elder hugs a patron as he visits Philippe The Original Deli during a campaign for the California gubernatorial recall election on Monday. Elder is the most likely replacement for Newsom, polls show
Democrats want Californians to vote 'No' in Tuesday's recall election, which would keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in his job
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden went after 'Trump clone' Elder during a campaign rally for Newsom on Monday night.
'You either keep Gavin Newsom as your governor or you get Donald Trump,' Biden warned at the event on the campus of Long Beach City College.
Biden won California in the 2020 election by almost 30 points.
In Tuesday's election, voters in California will decide whether to keep Newsom or replace him with someone else, with polls showing Elder, a prominent conservative radio show host, as the most likely alternative.
'He's leading the other team. Can you imagine him being governor of this state?' the president asked. 'You can't let that happen. There's too much at stake.'
Both Biden and Newsom, who introduced the president at the rally site, warned that Elder could bring an anti-science agenda to the state, as the country still reels from the Delta surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
'For these Republican governors, it's not about public health, the health of the people, it's about politics,' Biden complained.
He added that some of the most anti-vax Republican governors in the country also come from states where vaccine mandates for children going into schools - for diseases like measles and mumps - are some of the most strict.
'Just look at the hypocrisy,' Biden uttered. 'Talk about inconsistency.'
In California, 68% are fully vaccinated and there was anger in the state as mask mandates and other mitigation policies were reinstated after the Delta variant caused the infection rate to surge because of the unvaccinated.
Vaccine mandates are popular in the state with 61 per cent of California adults in favor of some kind of mandate according to a survey conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California conducted late last month.
Elder said, if he became governor, one of his first actions would be to eliminate Newsom's mandate for state workers to get vaccinated or else face weekly testing.
Beyond the pandemic, Biden warned what could happen to abortion rights, pointing to the controversial Texas law that bars abortions after six weeks.
'Women are to be respected and their rights protected,' Biden urged.
Both Biden and Newsom also pointed to comments Elder made in 2000 when he wrote in a column, 'women know less than men about political issues, economics, and current events.'
'We have someone on the other side of this ballot who thinks women aren't as smart as men,' Newsom said to boos from the crowd.
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