WASHINGTON (TNND) — California’s slow vote count after the June 2 primary is drawing renewed scrutiny and fueling fraud claims from prominent Republicans, including President Donald Trump, even as election experts say delays are not evidence of wrongdoing.
As of Monday, California still had nearly 3 million votes left to count from the June 2 primary. The state’s pace of tallying ballots has left the outcomes of closely watched races uncertain.
California’s slow primary vote count draws fraud claims from Trump, Republicans (TNND)
One of those races includes former reality TV star Spencer Pratt’s bid to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. Pratt had been in second place and positioned for a runoff against incumbent Karen Bass, but was recently bumped to third as votes continued to be counted. Late-arriving mail-in ballots were breaking for Democratic candidates in the left-leaning city. A third-place finish would end Pratt’s campaign. Pratt also appeared to suggest on social media that homeless people in Los Angeles were driving vote counts for his opponents.
Stephen Richer, a Harvard Kennedy School Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy and the former top elections administrator for Maricopa County, Arizona, said the pace of counting should not be conflated with fraud.
“The slowness itself is no indicator of fraud,” Richer said.
Richer said California’s process can be painfully slow while also not being riddled with fraud, and argued the state should consider changes.
“California can maybe look at changing some of the laws And I think they need to do that, because they need to have an appreciation for what voters are expecting, and that this is opening the door to some really unhealthy conversations about election fraud that’s unfortunately having an impact on people’s confidence in the election process,” Richer said.
Election analyst Nate Silver also criticized the pace, writing, “Slow counting fuels conspiracy theories.” Silver argued California cannot blame its size or the number of mail-in ballots, noting other states with larger percentages of mail voting and even bigger countries produce results faster.
Trump, pressed on his claims during an interview on “Meet the Press,” alleged wrongdoing without providing evidence and ended the interview early.
“It was a dirty election and it’s happening again right now in California,” Trump said.
“It’s a rigged election. Let me tell you, it’s four days and they aren’t even close to coming up with you know why they’re doing that because they’re cheating on the election,” he said.
When asked by host Kristen Welker, “Do you have evidence to support that?” Trump replied, “All I have to do is look.”
The President abruptly ended the interview shortly after.
There has been bipartisan acknowledgement in California that vote counting takes too long. Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles announced multiple election fraud investigations, saying the system has serious structural vulnerabilities.