{"id":353524,"date":"2026-06-09T19:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353524\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T19:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:49:09","slug":"california-primary-ballot-count-draws-criticism-as-trump-attacks-media-newsom-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/353524\/","title":{"rendered":"California primary ballot count draws criticism as Trump attacks media, Newsom responds"},"content":{"rendered":"

BALERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) California\u2019s primary election ballot count is drawing renewed criticism over how long it takes to finalize results, including from President Trump, who recently walked out of an interview after being pressed on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour elections are crooked and you\u2019re crooked and Meet the Press is crooked and so is ABC and CBS and CNN. You\u2019re one sided crooked networks. Let’s call it quits I\u2019ve had enough,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom responded in a tweet, saying in part, \u201cTrump is lying about California again.”<\/p>\n

Republican candidate for Governor Steve Hilton has proposed what he says is a way to speed up the process. <\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California primary ballot count draws criticism as Trump attacks media (Photo by Jon Cherry\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan that I’m announcing today, the Election Count Accelerator Plan, will give us final and full verified elections by 8:00 p.m. next Thursday, the 11th of June,\u201d Hilton said.<\/p>\n

The California Secretary of State\u2019s office said counting ballots in a state as large as California takes time. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith more than 23 million registered voters across 58 counties, ensuring a thorough and accurate count takes time. Votes go through numerous verification steps including signature verification, tabulation, audits, and reporting of results to the office of the Secretary of State,\u201d the office said.<\/p>\n

One observer said the delays can fuel skepticism. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will say from a perception standpoint it looks absolutely terrible especially for those in California that are most critical of the Democratic Party,\u201d said Tal Eslick, a political consultant.<\/p>\n

In Washington state, elections officials say they face similar scrutiny, particularly in tight races. <\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California primary ballot count draws criticism as Trump attacks media (Photo by Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut especially when races are close and margins are thin you have more people paying attention, more people asking questions and more people waiting for that very last vote to be counted,\u201d said Halei Watkins, communications manager for the Kings County Election Office in Washington state.<\/p>\n

Watkins said her county brings in additional staffing to process ballots faster. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe hirer hundreds of temporary workers to come work with us to make sure that we can get through those ballots as quickly as possible,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy really is an all-hands-on deck thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Washington has also faced questions about the pace of ballot counting in high-profile contests.<\/p>\n

\"California<\/p>\n

California primary ballot count draws criticism as Trump attacks media (Photo: KOMO News)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also had a close Seattle mayoral race and we\u2019re getting some of the same questions about why it takes time to count ballots,\u201d Watkins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) California\u2019s primary election ballot count is drawing renewed criticism over how long it takes to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-353524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353524","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=353524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}