Larry Elder’s voter fraud messaging depressed Republican turnout, GOP consultant charges
By Lara Korte, Fresno Bee, 91/16/21
Recall candidate Larry Elder – with an assist from former President Donald Trump – depressed GOP turnout in California’s recall race by raising the prospect of voter fraud before the election, a Republican consultant said Wednesday.
A day after Gov. Gavin Newsom won a clear victory in the recall election, advisers for Newsom, Elder and fellow Republican candidate Kevin Faulconer joined the Sacramento Press Club in a virtual discussion to dissect the race.
Ron Nehring, a former chair of the California GOP and adviser to Faulconer, pointed to a page on Elder’s website that, prior to the election, presumed that Newsom won the recall because of an influx of voter fraud. It asked voters to sign a petition asking for a special session of the Legislature to investigate. Nehring said such a suggestion was “astonishing” and discouraged Republicans from voting.
Larry Elder’s voter fraud messaging depressed Republican turnout, GOP consultant charges
Elder, in the week prior to the election, also said he was prepared to file lawsuits in the case of “shenanigans” at the polls. Similar messages came from Trump, who claimed, without evidence, that the election was rigged for Newsom.
“We can’t have an evidence-based party if we are bull—–ing people in advance that this election was stolen when it was not,” Nehring said Wednesday. “One way not to have Republicans win is by telling Republican voters that their votes don’t matter…. Lying to Republicans claiming an election was stolen, before a single vote or result had been published, is grossly irresponsible.”
Jeff Corless, an adviser to Elder, pushed back, saying that “everyone wants integrity in their elections.”
“At the end of the day, there’s nothing wrong with documenting things people may see as irregular,” he said.
When asked why the language claiming voter fraud was removed from Elder’s website, as The Sacramento Bee and others noted on Tuesday, Corless said to his knowledge, nothing had been changed. That is incorrect; The Bee has screenshots of content referring to the “twisted” results of the recall, which no longer appears on the site..
“As far as I know, nothing was taken down from that website,” he said. “There is an affidavit people could fill out that was brought to the front of the page to make it easier for people to report things that they saw. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.”
Neither Faulconer nor Elder have confirmed plans to run in the 2022 gubernatorial election, but based on conversations Wednesday, it’s clear Republicans can expect tensions between the two candidates moving forward.
Nehring accused Elder of acting as a “life preserver” for Newsom’s campaign. Early polls showed support for the recall almost evenly split, but that changed with Elder’s entry to the race, Nehring argued, and Newsom was able to pull out a huge victory.
“The overwhelming majority of Californians were not happy with the alternative, if that alternative was Larry Elder,” Nehring said. “It is very unfortunate that a governor who has run out of ideas, Gavin Newsom, was provided a vector, was assisted in his effort to make someone else the issue.”
Elder on Tuesday, prior to election results, said he has become a “force” within the Republican Party, and doesn’t intend to leave the political stage anytime soon.
Nehring pushed back on the idea that Elder will represent the party going into 2022.
“If Larry Elder thinks that he’s managed to tattoo ‘Larry’s Girl’ on the back of the California Republican Party, I think he’s in for quite a surprise,” he said, referencing a claim Elder’s former fiance made about a tattoo he wanted her to get.
The final recall vote tallies won’t be known for several weeks, but the fact that Elder appears to have won the most votes of any Republican candidate is important, Corless said.
“Larry got 2.3 million votes… so I look forward to getting together with Ron and dissecting that to understand why he got 2.3 million votes, and why Kevin Faulconer got far less,” he said.
Larry Elder’s voter fraud messaging depressed Republican turnout, GOP consultant charges
September 17, 2021 By Stephen Frank
This is a serious question. Does talking about vote fraud cause people to decide not to vote—due to vote fraud. In every speech since the middle of May the same question was asked—why vote if fraud is so prevalent?
“Ron Nehring, a former chair of the California GOP and adviser to Faulconer, pointed to a page on Elder’s website that, prior to the election, presumed that Newsom won the recall because of an influx of voter fraud. It asked voters to sign a petition asking for a special session of the Legislature to investigate. Nehring said such a suggestion was “astonishing” and discouraged Republicans from voting.
Elder, in the week prior to the election, also said he was prepared to file lawsuits in the case of “shenanigans” at the polls. Similar messages came from Trump, who claimed, without evidence, that the election was rigged for Newsom.
We know that at a minimum the Secretary of State sent ballot to 440,000 dad people and people that have moved out of State==that is fraud—yet NO ON was willing to sue to stop this. All the poll watchers in the world could not stop this—since about 80% of the vote wan in the mail—NOT at a polling place. It is time to get serious about stopping the fraud, not just talk about it.
