Becerra urges voters not to be intimidated by Trump’s election interference threats
Gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra sought to reassure California voters that it was safe to vote in Tuesday’s election in light of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on the state’s voting process.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and others have warned that Trump could seek to intervene in the midterm election and potentially attempt to seize ballots.
After voting in Sacramento, Becerra said that voters might notice volunteers working at polling stations in California to ensure that no one is intimidated.
“We want to see record numbers [of voters turn out], we want to fight back against that intimidation, that obstruction,” added Becerra.
Becerra told reporters that “we have seen this movie before — it was a C-rated movie,” a reference to the Trump’s past efforts to scrutinize California’s elections.
Trump claimed, without evidence last week, that “there are hundreds of thousands of bad ballots, bad votes, in California. Millions, in my opinion.”
In mid-October, the Trump administration sued California and said federal courts should require California and Los Angeles County to “set aside vote-by-mail ballots from persons identified by the federal government likely to be non-citizens.”
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down the Trump administration’s bid to set aside ballots from 20,000 California voters who the administration alleges may not be citizens.
The litigation has been met with deep concern from state leaders.
“It’s a sad statement that we can’t depend on our own federal government to have our backs,” Becerra said.
Staff writer Kevin Rector contributed reporting