California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is favored to beat a recall attempt and keep his office. Still, some Republicans are already setting the stage to blame a loss on voter fraud.

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Tomorrow is Election Day here in California. And on the ballot is the recall of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Polling in recent weeks has Newsom, a Democrat, favored to keep his office. But Republicans say if they lose, it's because the process was rigged. As NPR's Miles Parks reports, that's a tactic that's becoming the new normal.

MILES PARKS, BYLINE: Leading up to the 2020 election, then-President Trump was clear; fraud was coming. It looks like a similar game plan now. Trump released a statement today calling the California recall election a scam. And here's the leading Republican replacement candidate, Larry Elder, on Fox News this month.

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LARRY ELDER: So there are all sorts of reasons why the 2020 election, in my opinion, was full of shenanigans. And my fear is they're going to try that in this election right here in recall.

PARKS: Elder's campaign even set up a website where concerned voters can report potential suspicious election activity. It's important to note that there's never been evidence that the results of the 2020 election were affected by fraud. But fraud claims are having a real effect on the people who run elections in this country. Neal Kelley is the election supervisor in Orange County, Calif., and a Republican. And he says his employees have been followed and videotaped while picking up ballots from drop boxes in recent weeks.

NEAL KELLEY: I've been doing this almost 18 years. And I would say the end of '19, leading into '20 and then all the way up to today has been the most stressful period of my career.

PARKS: One recent poll found that a third of local election administrators nationwide felt unsafe while doing their jobs during the last election cycle. Jamie Shew runs elections in Douglas County, Kan. He says fraud claims didn't start last year.

JAMIE SHEW: Even in '16, '18, candidates were kind of going to, there was fraud, rather than, it was a bad campaign. But I would say that 2020 took it to a whole new level, and I don't think that's going to go away.

PARKS: In Douglas County last year, there was a county commission race decided by just three votes. Both candidates accepted the results. But Shew worries next time, they might not be so lucky.

Miles Parks, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE LAGOONS' "CALIFORNIA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.