What Went Down At The California Recall Election: Live Results

My view is that if Republicans are willing to claim an election is rigged in a blue state where they’re significant underdogs, they’re basically unwilling to accept election outcomes where they lose anywhere. And that’s a huge problem for the country, and it bodes ill for the potential acceptance of election results in 2022 and, of course, 2024.

Indeed. I do wonder if there is a long-term consequence like what you’re suggesting, Micah. If the playbook for the GOP going forward is to raise the specter of election fraud after (or, evidently, before) any election with an outcome that’s unfavorable to them, after a while that will further erode faith in the electoral process. And then I wonder if Republican voters will bother showing up to the polls. What’s the point of casting a ballot in a “rigged” election?

Oh, that’s interesting, Kaleigh. I guess I wonder how big that pretty-far-down-the-rabbit-hole group is, though. I would think it’s not nearly as big as Republican voters who believe in fraud in the abstract but aren’t trading detailed conspiracies online. And it’s that latter group that I would imagine perhaps not turning out if a candidate’s campaign tells them the result is predetermined.