Trump fuels California election fraud claims

LOS ANGELES — President Trump and his colleagues are escalating claims of election fraud in California and turning to a playbook they have used to sow doubt about the election results.

Even before former reality TV star Spencer Pratt missed a chance in a November runoff against current Mayor Karen Bass, he lost to Los Angeles City Council member and Democratic socialist Nithya Raman in a count the day after the election, prompting Trump and others to accuse the state of not only being slow but also “rigged.”

“There’s no way Spencer Platt could lose the LA runoff after leading by a huge margin. Third world country. The election is rigged!” Trump Written on Monday in the reference country messy elementary school Taking over from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Trump-backed Republican candidate Steve Hilton firmly secured second place. “Now they’re going to look at it on the great Steve Hilton. It’s probably going to be two weeks before we have the results, according to officials.”

California’s cumbersome vote-counting process gives Trump and his supporters ample time to make such claims, as state officials won’t be providing final election results anytime soon. Most California voters cast their ballots by mail. State law prioritizes voter participation over speed, requiring election officials to verify and count every ballot postmarked by Election Day and delivered within a week of Election Day.

In a controversial interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Trump said the state’s protracted voting process was questionable. “Do you think it’s appropriate that they hold an election and five days later they’re nowhere near picking a winner?” he said.

There was no evidence of wrongdoing.

After Trump questioned last week why the results had changed, Newsom’s office said, “These are legal ballots that were postmarked on Election Day and arrived at legal counting centers — a process that has been standard practice for years and is a process that many states follow regardless of the party in power.”

Election officials in California’s 58 counties are providing provisional tallies as they verify and tally ballots. Because California Republicans typically vote early or in person on Election Day, early election results tend to appear more to the right and then shift to the left when ballots in the mail or in drop boxes are counted on Election Day, a phenomenon known as the “red mirage” or “blue shift.”

Preliminary results released last week in Los Angeles showed Bass in first place, with Pratt nearly eight points ahead of Raman. New statistics released each day chipped away at Pratt’s second-place spot, then erased it.

The Associated Press said late Monday that Raman will advance to a November runoff against Bass.

Others around Trump who have raised fraud claims include Elon Musk, who has made more than a dozen posts on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, questioning California’s process and mail-in voting more broadly.

House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed Trump’s sentiments on Monday but stopped short of saying there was outright fraud. “I mean it stinks, and everybody knows it,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters. “Let’s eliminate inappropriate behavior,” he added.

The president continues to claim without evidence that he did not lose the 2020 election to Joe Biden, and he has drawn a clear line between this year’s political campaign and his claims that the election was stolen six years ago.

“This was a dirty election,” Trump said on NBC about the 2020 presidential election results he is trying to overturn. “It’s happening again in California.”

Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who has been an outspoken supporter of Trump, has made clear he is investigating the fraud claims. esaili Friday said California’s election system has “serious structural vulnerabilities” and his office has “multiple ongoing election fraud investigations.”

“Please do not send rumors, theories or second-hand information,” he Said in another recent article. “We need direct evidence.”

Essaly dismissed a claim, amplified by Musk and others, that Platt received no votes in a batch of ballot results released by Los Angeles County election officials on election night. He said his office had reviewed official records and “this assertion is false.”

A representative for Essayli declined to comment.

The spread of right-wing fraud claims comes as the Trump administration is pursuing several election-related initiatives ahead of this year’s midterm elections that will define the final two years of his presidency by determining control of Congress.

The Justice Department has sought detailed data from state voter rolls but has faced resistance from more than two dozen states, which have won multiple court victories.

The department said the data will aid its efforts to protect election integrity. Some opposing states say handing over the data would jeopardize voter privacy and could help the government interfere in state election processes.

Trump issued an executive order in March directing the Postal Service to develop regulations for mail-in ballots and the Department of Homeland Security to oversee efforts to develop lists of voters the government deems eligible to vote. Critics say both measures could disenfranchise legal voters.

Write to Louise Radnovsky: louise.radnofsky@wsj.com and Laura J. Nelson laura.nelson@wsj.com