{"id":351073,"date":"2026-06-08T00:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T00:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/351073\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T00:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T00:18:13","slug":"california-voter-fraud-fight-sparks-all-out-war-what-are-they-afraid-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/351073\/","title":{"rendered":"California voter fraud fight sparks all-out war: ‘What are they afraid of?’"},"content":{"rendered":"

California is blocking a federal audit of its voter rolls as the Trump administration ramps up<\/a> its criticism of local elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LA\u2019s top federal prosecutor Bill Essayli said Sunday his office wants to scrutinize the state\u2019s electoral system as eyebrows have been raised<\/a> over a sudden surge in late votes for Democratic candidates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia allows first-time voters to register using forms of ID that most Americans would find surprising,\u201d Essayli wrote in a post on X Sunday, listing examples that included health club membership cards, employee identification cards, credit or debit cards, prescription drug labels and insurance cards.<\/p>\n

California is blocking a federal audit of its voter rolls. Pedro Colo for CA Post<\/p>\n

He noted those forms of identification are permitted under California regulations in limited circumstances when a voter does not provide a driver\u2019s license number or Social Security number during registration.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur office believes this policy deserves a closer look,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIf California genuinely wants voters to trust its elections, it should open its records, not fight to keep them closed. What are they afraid of?\u201d <\/p>\n

Essayli also raised concerns about California\u2019s voter rolls, questioning whether the state is adequately removing deceased voters, people who have moved away and individuals convicted of disqualifying felonies.<\/p>\n

LA\u2019s top federal prosecutor Bill Essayli said his office wants to scrutinize the state\u2019s electoral system. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of that, California allows third parties to collect and turn in ballots on voters\u2019 behalf (a practice known as ballot harvesting) with few restrictions,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis makes it difficult to track who actually received, completed, and submitted each ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal government has been seeking access to California\u2019s statewide voter registration list for more than a year as part of a review of the state\u2019s compliance with federal election laws.<\/p>\n

Essayli\u2019s post was shared with a copy August 2025 letter from the DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, where federal officials requested the state\u2019s voter registration list to evaluate compliance with maintenance requirements under the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.<\/p>\n

Essayli also raised concerns about California\u2019s voter rolls, questioning whether the state is adequately removing deceased voters, people who have moved away and individuals convicted of disqualifying felonies. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The letter argued federal law grants the attorney general authority to obtain election records and conduct an independent review of voter registration systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia cannot limit the Justice Department\u2019s access to mere inspection of the requested voter registration records,\u201d the department led by Harmeet Dhilon wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Justice Department is entitled to a full and complete copy of those records in the form in which California maintains them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal officials further requested copies of all voter registration applications submitted between Dec. 1, 2023, and July 1, 2025, and argued that federal election laws preempt state privacy restrictions that California has cited in refusing to provide the records.<\/p>\n

Essayli said the dispute is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n

The federal government has been seeking access to California\u2019s statewide voter registration list for more than a year as part of a review of the state\u2019s compliance with federal election laws. Pedro Colo for CA Post<\/p>\n

California law requires voters to provide a California driver\u2019s license number, state identification number or the last four digits of a Social Security number when registering. If an applicant does not have those forms of identification, election officials may assign a unique identifying number to validate the registration.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s regulations also contain a broad list of acceptable identification documents for first-time federal election voters who must verify their identity under the federal Help America Vote Act.<\/p>\n

State regulations direct election officials to interpret identification requirements liberally and resolve doubts in favor of allowing eligible voters to cast regular ballots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s right for the state attorney general \u2014 if it\u2019s a Democrat or Republican \u2014 to push back on the federal administration to try to, um, you know, attack their elections in that way,\u201d pollster and Democratic election expert Paul Mitchell told The Post.<\/p>\n

The state has decline an audit of its voter roles by the federal government. <\/p>\n

Federal officials further requested copies of all voter registration applications submitted between Dec. 1, 2023, and July 1, 2025, and argued that federal election laws preempt state privacy restrictions that California has cited in refusing to provide the records. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Critics of the fraud allegations say California\u2019s election system contains multiple layers of verification designed to prevent ineligible voting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conspiracy theorists like to conflate that everybody in California, non-citizens can get a driver\u2019s license. But there\u2019s a different driver\u2019s license for a non-citizen than for a citizen. And the DMV knows whether you\u2019re a citizen or not,\u201d Mitchell said. <\/p>\n

He said provisional ballots serve as a safeguard when questions arise about a voter\u2019s registration or eligibility. Rather than being counted immediately, the ballots are held by county election officials while they verify the voter\u2019s information. The ballot is counted only if officials determine the person was eligible to vote and did not cast another ballot elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would be committing a crime, you\u2019d face five years in jail, and you\u2019d face losing your visa,\u201d he said, noting that even provisional ballot voters must attest that they are U.S. citizens and face penalties if found guilty of lying.<\/p>\n

The claims have reignited debate over voter fraud in California, despite the absence of evidence of widespread fraud in the state\u2019s elections. <\/p>\n

California law requires voters to provide a California driver\u2019s license number, state identification number or the last four digits of a Social Security number when registering. Jonathan Alcorn\/Zuma \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

The controversy comes as ballots cast on June 2 primary still continue to be counted, with several closely watched races for governor and mayor remaining in flux.<\/p>\n

In some contests, Republican and conservative candidates who appeared ahead on election night have seen their leads diminish as additional mail-in and provisional ballots are counted, prompting renewed speculation from critics of California\u2019s vote-counting process.<\/p>\n

Mitchell also pushed back on claims that California\u2019s lengthy vote-counting process is evidence of fraud.<\/p>\n

He said Republican candidates often perform better in the earliest returns because their supporters tend to return ballots sooner. As additional mail ballots are processed in heavily Democratic areas such as Los Angeles County, later results can shift toward Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

Mitchell argued those changes reflect the order in which ballots are received and counted rather than wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

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Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder\/County Clerk Dean Logan also defended the integrity of California\u2019s election system and rejected allegations that fraud is occurring during the counting process.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo evidence,\u201d Logan said when asked about claims of cheating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what we\u2019re seeing, unfortunately, is carrying out of a narrative that has become the gameplay in national politics in the United States, and that is to prior to the vote count being completed, take shots at the process, so if the outcome turns out different than what you want, you don\u2019t accept that, you challenge the process. The reality is this is the way elections have been designed in California,\u201d Logan said.<\/p>\n

Logan said voting patterns and registration demographics largely explain why later-counted ballots can favor Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you have to look at the demographics of the county and you have to look at the registered voter statistics in L.A. County and in California in general. The Democratic registration rate is significantly higher than Republican. The second largest group of voters are people who don\u2019t identify with a party at all. So I\u2019ll leave the speculation of the campaign dynamics to political commentators, but logic follows,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Logan said voter confidence in the system is reflected in how ballots are submitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of L.A. County voters turn their ballots in at those drop boxes, and I think that itself is an indication that they\u2019re confident that that process is gonna work and work correctly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California is blocking a federal audit of its voter rolls as the Trump administration ramps up its criticism…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,46666,9,8,1751,47,13,1748,3586,26296],"class_list":["post-351073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-governor-election-2026","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-democrats","tag-los-angeles","tag-politics","tag-republicans","tag-us-news","tag-voter-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}