President Donald Trump accused California Democrats of “cheating” and “trying to steal” the elections from Republican candidates as the state continues to count votes in what may be a days or weeks-long process.
“They are trying to steal the Governor of California primary and the Mayor of Los Angeles primary away from two great Republican candidates,” he claimed. “Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of mail-in ballots.”
In a follow-up Truth Social post, he claimed there was “big cheating” by the Democrats, querying: “Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting delay?”
Trump did not provide evidence of fraud and it remains unclear if any such “investigation” has been sanctioned.
California operates under a “top-two” primary system, dubbed ‘jungle primary,’meaning the two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.
While Californians headed to the polls on Tuesday, it could be days or weeks before the counting is complete. The state is known for its long, meticulous vote-counting process, partly due to its heavy reliance on mail-in ballots, which need to be sorted through and certified.
Every person who is registered to vote in California receives a mail-in ballot and if the ballot is postmarked by Election Day and reaches a county elections office within a week of Election Day, it will be counted.
In 2024, control of the House of Representatives was not determined until roughly a week after election day, in part because California was still tallying ballots. The state completed its final count nearly a month after the election.
There is much anticipation over the gubernatorial race in California, which will determine who is progressing in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
A long-time sparring partner of Trump, Newsom’s press office issued a statement shortly after the President made his claims of a fraudulent counting process.
“Trump is lying about California again—time to take the phone away from grandpa and put him to sleep,” read the note.
According to the Associated Press, as of Thursday morning, Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton was leading the gubernatorial race with 27.6% of the vote, followed by Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra at 25.6%. However, with only 56% of ballots estimated to be counted, nothing is set in stone.
But the ongoing vote count did not stop Trump from taking to social media on Wednesday to congratulate Hilton “on coming in first.”
The Los Angeles mayoral contest also remains close.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass has advanced to the November runoff. She’ll be the city’s first sitting mayor since 2005 to fail to earn the 50% of votes needed to avoid a runoff.
It remains to be seen whether former reality TV star Spencer Pratt or Los Angeles city council member Nithya Raman will be the second candidate.
Meanwhile, Trump’s accusations of cheating come after years of him falsely claiming that the 2020 election, won by former President Joe Biden, was stolen from him.
Amid the rhetoric, on Jan. 6, 2021, rioters stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to block lawmakers from certifying Biden’s election victory.
It’s a claim the President has continued to make. During a podcast interview released Wednesday, Trump argued: “The election was rigged 100%… He [former President Joe Biden] lost the election in a landslide. We have a very corrupt election process.”
Since returning to office last year, Trump has made restricting mail voting a major priority—something he says is diminishing the integrity of elections. He is pushing for the passing of the SAVE America Act, a sweeping federal proposal that would impose stricter voter identification requirements and curb the use of mail-in-ballots.
The President recently renewed his call for Congress to pass the legislation, which has faced resistance from some Senate Republicans and has not secured sufficient support to advance in the chamber.
“We cannot, as a country, put up with this any longer. Voter I.D. and proof of citizenship must be approved, now. Crooked mail-in voting must be stopped,” he said on May 16.
Despite the President’s claims of corruption, research indicates that fraudulent mail-in voting is very rare.
Newsom signed a bill last week to strengthen California’s voting safeguards ahead of the primary elections, citing what he characterized as “legitimate anxiety” over potential efforts by the Trump Administration to interfere in the democratic process.
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