SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday blasted former President Donald Trump and recall candidate Larry Elder for sowing mistrust in California’s upcoming election before any results have been announced.
After casting his recall ballot at the California Museum in downtown Sacramento, Newsom said the former president’s rhetoric, as well as Elder’s plans to challenge the election results, are damaging to democracy.
“There is a thread within the Republican Party that, if they don’t get what they want, they are willing to assault the core tenets of an election in ways that have far-reaching consequences,” Newsom told The Sacramento Bee in an interview. “It’s very, very damaging and baseless, absolutely baseless.”
On Tuesday, Trump falsely claimed that the election is likely “rigged” for Newsom, a Democrat, during an appearance on Newsmax.
“It’s probably rigged,” Trump said, repeating complaints about mail-in ballots he raised in 2020. “The ballots ... are mail-in ballots ... I guess you even have a case where you can make your own ballot. When that happens, nobody’s gonna win except these Democrats. The one thing they are good at is rigging elections, so I predict it’s a rigged election.”
These is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in California elections. The 22 million ballots California county elections offices have sent to every registered voter are checked and verified to ensure each person only votes once and that only active, registered voters cast ballots. Officials also check to ensure the signature on each mail ballot matches the one on file with the state.
Elder, a Republican, told reporters in Los Angeles on Wednesday his campaign is ready to sue over the election results, even though he also said he expected to win.
“We have a voter integrity board all set up – most of these are lawyers,” Elder said Wednesday, according to CNN. “So, when people hear things, they contact us. We’re going to file lawsuits in a timely fashion.”
Elder’s campaign website links to a form to report voter fraud and a petition to investigate the results of the recall that is written as if Newsom has already won.
“We implore you ... 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 website says.
Recall supporters have always faced an uphill battle to unseat the incumbent governor in California, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-to-1.
Republicans have not won a statewide election in California since former Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger’s reelection in 2006.
Polling for much of August showed the election was surprisingly close, largely because many Democrats weren’t closely following the election and weren’t counted by pollsters as likely voters, but recent polling has found Newsom has taken a commanding lead.
The rhetoric from Trump and Elder’s campaign echoes the claims of voter fraud the former president and his supporters raised after he lost the 2020 election.
“It’s a continuation of Trumpism,” Newsom said. “It has real profound impact on the confidence people have in their democracy, and it’s very damaging.”
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(The Bee Capitol Bureau’s Lara Korte contributed to this story.)
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