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How Recall Election Candidate Larry Elder Saved Our State
All is well enough in the state right now because Californians came out to vote on September 14.
COLUMN
Thank you, Larry Elder. Do you sense my sarcasm?
All is well enough in the state right now because Californians came out to vote on September 14.
And they came out to vote not because they loved or hated Gov. Gavin Newsom.
They came out to vote because they feared Larry Elder would win a rigged election.
That’s right. Democrats and a majority of voters feared the election was rigged FOR Elder.
As of Tuesday morning, all 18,185 precincts have reported with all mail-in and provisional ballots yet to be counted.
But we have a good indication of the result: Landslide.
The No vote on the recall was 6,983,950, or 63%.
The Yes vote to recall was 4,094,118, or 37%.
So far, Donald Trump is the only one on election night to claim the vote was rigged in California. But even Elder showed some sense of restraint (which must have taken a herculean effort) when he didn’t declare the election was rigged against him. You think he’s going to find 2.9 million dead people voting to make up that margin of defeat?
But as I said, the fact is the election was rigged—but for Elder.
If the Yes vote had won, the winner of the second question, the one with the list of 46 candidates would have replaced Newsom. All it took was the candidate with the most votes, and as of Tuesday this week that would be Elder with oddly 2.9 million votes. That’s all it would have taken to be the new governor of California.
That would have been a bona fide theft of the governor’s office. A January 6–style result under cloak of the official ballot. So much for majority rule. The recall was all set up for the right person—if Yes on Recall had won.
Fortunately, it didn’t.
I said a month ago after interviewing Newsom that considering the real consequences of this recall election, it would not be hyperbolic to say this could be the single-most important election for voters in California, maybe ever.
I meant it. For voters who believe in social justice, diversity, living wages, freedom of choice for women, etc. etc., there was a real threat of setbacks to all of that if the governorship changed hands.
Back when I saw him, Newsom looked weary, a bit concerned. His odds to beat the recall was practically a coin flip.
But Newsom got a boost when the Republican attempt to nationalize the election backfired. The national GOP essentially made the recall a referendum on Trump with Black conservative Elder the uber-proxy.
And then once you got to know Elder, it was over.
As a former talk host, I know what Larry was up to. Be a provocateur. Excite and polarize. Hence, being anti-vax, anti-climate, anti-minimum wage, anti-abortion lit up the phones. But scared the heck out of the voters.
They showed up. And voted No for real, by about 2.9 million votes. Ironically, as of this latest count, it’s the same number of votes Elder got on (the moot) question 2. So, he doesn’t leave with nothing. Just a worthless consolation. Winner of the also-rans that couldn’t win its own rigged recall election. But he did his job. He scared us all into voting against the recall.
