Sound Familiar?   

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. 

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.

'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.' 

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.  

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. 

'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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