Are GOP California conspiracy theories preparation for November?

President Donald Trump is once again making baseless accusations of election fraud. This time it is in California, where right-wing Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt failed to survive this month’s primary election.

Trump treats “any Democratic election victory” as “suspicious on its face” even if it happens in “one of the most liberal cities in America,” said The New York Times. His evidence-free assertions of vote-rigging in the California race are an “unusually clear preview of how he could greet any disappointing results for his party in November.” It is “not possible” for Pratt to have lost this month’s election, the president said on Truth Social.

Trump’s efforts to take greater control of voting processes have so far fallen short, said the Times. His SAVE Act that would require voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship failed to advance in the Senate. But as the Jan. 6, 2001 insurrection demonstrated, the president still can “sow substantial chaos” with false allegations of fraud.

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Latest Videos From‘Petty and tired strategy’

The president is using a familiar playbook, LeBron Antonio Hill said at The Sacramento Bee. Trump is attempting to “sow doubt, divide the country and rally his base with conspiracy” in order to upend elections that do not go his way. California is actually a “model for voter access and participation” with features such as “universal mail-in ballots, early voting and same-day registration” that have led to “record turnout” in elections. That achievement is “something to celebrate, not undermine.” Americans should not allow Trump’s “petty and tired strategy to become the norm.”

Trump’s California accusations have “naturally elicited eye-rolls,” but the state really does have a “leaky election system” that juices Democratic votes, The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial. With the Golden State’s “sloth-like pace of counting ballots,” it can take days for results to emerge. That is why Pratt, who first appeared to be in second place in the early results, dropped to third and out of the race as more votes were counted. The delayed results are a “disservice to democracy,” but Democrats do not seem to care “as long as progressives are winning.”

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‘Cried wolf too many times’

The debate makes California the “new ground zero for free and fair elections,” Marc Elias said at Democracy Docket. Trump has attacked its voting processes repeatedly over the years, claiming he would have won the famously liberal state if not for fraud. “If Jesus Christ came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, okay?” Trump said to Dr. Phil in 2024. But that seems unlikely. Trump simply “cannot “bear the fact that there are people willing to stand up to him and his lies,” said Elias.

Trump’s fraud claims “may backfire on him in the fall,” Richard L. Hasen said at MS NOW. Pushback now against the president’s accusations could “inoculate the public against similar unsupported charges” in the midterm elections. “The boy has cried wolf too many times.”

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