California's ballot count continues at a deliberate pace, with over 2.5 million votes still being tabulated across the state. The extended timeline has become fertile ground for Republican assertions of election misconduct, even as election officials and fraud experts say no credible evidence supports the claims.
Former President Donald Trump initiated the wave of accusations days after the primary, posting on Truth Social that Democrats were attempting to steal the California governor's race and Los Angeles mayoral contest. When Decision Desk HQ projected that progressive city councilor Nithya Raman would win the second runoff spot in the mayoral race, Trump posted: "No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!"
Trump has made similar assertions repeatedly over the weekend and in media appearances, claiming that the volume of mail-in ballots arriving late in the count process indicates systematic fraud. He has previously opposed mail-in voting, a method increasingly favored by Democrats since 2020.
Reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, the Republican candidate competing with Raman for the second mayoral spot, echoed the suspicion on social media, hinting that Raman's surge in the count came from votes from the city's unhoused population. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk amplified these claims on X, reposting multiple messages questioning California's election integrity and suggesting that counted votes supporting Raman were fraudulent.
The Trump administration's justice department has also weighed in. A federal prosecutor was sent to observe ballot counting in Los Angeles, and Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the central district of California, announced that his office has launched multiple election fraud investigations in coordination with the FBI's Los Angeles office.
Election officials and researchers directly contradict the fraud narrative. No credible evidence of voter fraud has surfaced in California. Essayli himself debunked a circulating social media claim about a ballot count anomaly at the Los Angeles Registrar of Voters, writing that his office reviewed official county records and found the claim to be false.
Voter fraud in the United States is extraordinarily rare. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization, assembled a database of roughly 1,000 fraud cases only by reaching back decades across hundreds of millions of votes cast. Analysis by the Brookings Institution of Heritage's data found that fraudulent votes in Arizona represented just 0.0000845% of ballots, with no election outcomes altered by ballot manipulation.
California's Slow Count Process
The state's methodical ballot counting reflects deliberate security measures, not dysfunction. Every California voter receives a mail-in ballot. Election officials electronically and manually verify signatures on those ballots, and voters have 22 days to correct any errors. This system prevents valid ballots from being discarded over minor mistakes but extends the counting timeline beyond election night.
Kim Alexander of the California Voter Foundation called California's process "the most accessible, secure and verifiable election system in the country."
Democratic voters' preference for mail-in ballots also delays results. Since the 2020 pandemic, 58% of Democrats voted by mail compared to 29% of Republicans. These mail-in ballots, especially those submitted close to or after election day, are counted later in the process, naturally pushing Democratic candidates' vote totals upward as more ballots are processed.
Many California voters deliberately mail ballots at the last moment to base their choices on the most recent polling data. The state accepts mail-in ballots postmarked on or before election day and received up to a week after the election, further extending the count.
Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc, told the Guardian that voters would choose accurate counts over speed. "The only people who complain about it are the people who lose," he said.
Governor Gavin Newsom acknowledged the vulnerability created by the delay, warning county election offices last month that "time is of the essence in preventing election lies from taking hold." He urged faster counts to reduce space for misinformation.
Possible Solutions
States and experts have identified concrete ways to accelerate California's process. Investment in staffing, equipment, and facilities produces measurable results. Los Angeles County, after funding a $10 million ballot processing facility, counted 96.9% of votes within a week of the 2024 election, up from 77% in 2022.
California reduced the ballot correction window from 26 days to 22 days last year. Some advocates are pushing for further reductions. Additionally, dozens of counties now allow voters to open and cast mail-in ballots directly at polling locations, ensuring same-day counts for those votes.
Nithya Raman, who trailed early on election night, delivered a cautious speech to supporters without conceding. She noted that thousands of votes remained to be counted and said that regardless of the outcome, "nobody, nobody can take away what all of us have built together." Raman did not legally concede, and such a statement would not have been binding even if she had.
Rumors have circulated that Governor Newsom possesses a "break the glass" option to block Pratt from winning the mayoral race. In reality, Newsom told lawmakers he had such a contingency plan only for the governor's race, to rally Democratic voters to prevent two Republicans from advancing. The plan involved mobilizing voters before the primary, not removing a candidate after results were counted.
Author James Rodriguez: "The pattern is predictable: results shift as mail-in votes are counted, Republicans cry fraud, and zero evidence materializes. California's system is designed for accuracy, not speed, and that's a feature, not a bug."
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