Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...President Donald Trump railed against California elections in a series of posts, alleging “big cheating” without citing evidence.
Trump, long a critic of California’s elections and mail ballots, accused Democrats of “trying to steal” gubernatorial and L.A. mayoral elections.
Republican and Trump-endorsed Steve Hilton holds a lead in the race for governor, with Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer still battling it out for that coveted second spot to make the general election runoff.
Over in the L.A. mayoral race, reality television personality Spencer Pratt was in second place behind incumbent Karen Bass, a former longtime Democratic member of Congress, according to the latest, unofficial results. But progressive Councilmember Nithya Raman was getting closer to that No. 2 spot, the latest returns show, as more ballots are received and counted.
“Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS,” Trump posted to Truth Social late Wednesday, June 3.
And later Thursday morning, the president said: “Look what’s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote.”
In another post, Trump alleged the U.S. Attorney’s Office in L.A. is investigating California elections. When reached Thursday morning, a spokesperson for the office declined to comment on the president’s statement.
Later ballots tend to be more Democratic leaning, especially since the state’s Democrats waited to vote this year in case a frontrunner would emerge among the bevy of candidates in the governor’s race. And Republicans tend to vote earlier and in person on Election Day.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office responded to Trump’s claims with its own social media post: “Trump is lying about California again — time to take the phone away from grandpa and put him to sleep.”
When asked to cite specific examples of the alleged cheating, a White House spokesperson simply referred to the president’s social media posts, without providing further evidence.
In California, every registered voter is mailed a ballot, and they have multiple ways to cast them: in person, at drop boxes or through the mail. Ballots returned via the U.S. Postal Service are still counted so long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day, June 2, and arrive at the county elections office within seven days.
And as Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page has said, it’s not so much that vote counting takes a long time, it’s the process, set by state law, which gives voters time to fix a signature challenge on mailed ballot envelopes. This year, that deadline is 5 p.m. on June 24 — and that means county elections officials cannot certify local results until June 26.
The California secretary of state has until July 10 to certify the results of this election.
And, in fact, Orange County is counting ballots even quicker than before it adopted the current system with vote centers and electronic rosters, Page said.
“From four to nine days after Election Day in every statewide election since 2020, the votes from at least 95% of accepted ballots in OC are reported,” Page said in a post on LinkedIn on Wednesday. “During the 2025 Statewide Special Election, we posted the results from 98.8% of accepted ballots within four days.”
During the 2018 general election, before moving to this system, results from at least 95% of accepted ballots weren’t posted until 18 days after the election because of the number of provisional ballots to process, he said.
Trump has often falsely claimed his 2020 election loss was the result of cheating. And he is also a big critic of California and how the Democratic-leaning state conducts its elections.
In November, when voters overwhelmingly approved a congressional redistricting plan, Trump alleged the election system was “rigged,” without citing any evidence.
He also suggested last year withholding future federal aid for the recovery of California’s most devastating wildfires until the state establishes a voter ID law.
Meanwhile, claims of widespread fraud in California’s elections have not been substantiated, and Republican leaders in the state have encouraged their party’s voters to vote by mail and vote early.
Trump, in April, endorsed Hilton in the race for governor, choosing to back the former Fox News personality over Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who has given his wholehearted and open support for the president in a blue state where the president is especially unpopular.
And ahead of the June 2 election, Trump said he’d like to see Pratt “do well” in the mayoral contest.
A spokesperson for Hilton did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
A representative for Pratt pointed to a post on X the mayoral candidate made earlier in the day:
“God always wins.”