Campaign

Larry Elder campaign spreads baseless claim that recall election ended in fraud before results are declared

by Joseph Choi - 09/13/21 9:42 PM ET

The campaign for California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder on Monday began propagating allegations of election fraud, one day prior to the recall election and before election results have even been released.

Elder’s campaign shared a form on his website that appeared to assume that Newsom held onto his seat, alleging that he did so through election fraud. The California recall election is set to begin on Tuesday, Sept. 14, though mail-in voting has already begun and early voting already took place earlier in September.

“They say that in America, there are four boxes of liberty. The soapbox, the ballot box, the jury box, and the ammo box,” the form said. “When we vote we exercise our rights as Californians and as Americans to make our voices heard via the ballot box, having listened to others make theirs heard through the soapbox. We trust in our elected officials to safeguard that ballot box, such that its results will truly reflect our will as Californian’s.”

“However, when those officials, either through laziness or incompetence, allow thieves to steal amidst the dead of night and cheat our ballot box, we can no longer rely on its contents,” it added.

The website on which the baseless, preemptive claims were made was paid for by Elder’s campaign.

The form asked for voters to sign a petition demanding a special session of the California legislature to “investigate and ameliorate the twisted results” of the election. The results of the election have not yet been released before voters head to the polls Tuesday.

The petition claimed that “statistical analyses used to detect fraud in elections held in 3rd-world nations” detected fraud in California’s yet-to-be determined recall election.

Polling website FiveThirtyEight currently shows that nearly 58 percent of voters are in favor of keeping Newsom as governor, while around 42 percent say he should be removed. In order for Newsom to be removed from office, more than 50 percent of voters must vote in favor of removing him as governor.