President Trump claimed the Democrats are “trying to steal” the California gubernatorial and the Los Angeles mayoral primaries – and launched a probe into the state’s sluggish vote count.
Trump fumed Thursday over how votes in California are trickling in two days after polls closed – and the results of the elections may not be known for several weeks due to the vast amount of mail-in ballots that need to be processed.
“The Dumocrats are at it again,” Trump raged on Truth Social.
“They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”
Trump announced a probe into the slow vote counting has been launched — but it’s unclear who initiated the investigation.
“There’s big cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks” Trump blasted in another post. “Under investigation by the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why [is] the vote counting delay???”
California’s vote count often stretches beyond Election Day because officials must verify signatures, process millions of vote-by-mail ballots, and conduct required audits before certifying results.
State law gives county election officials up to 30 days after an election to complete the official canvass, count every valid ballot, and perform post-election checks to ensure accuracy.
Results started trickling in shortly after polls closed Tuesday, but those numbers can change as additional ballots are processed.
Early in-person votes and mail-in ballots that came in during the first weeks of voting will be released as the state’s initial results.
Because California accepts vote-by-mail ballots that can be postmarked by Election Day and received later, final results in close races may not be known for days or even weeks.
Only 56% of the vote has been counted statewide in California — and Steve Hilton, a former aide to ex-British Prime Minister David Cameron, leads the way.
The top two candidates, irrespective of party, will progress and face off against each other in November’s general election.
Hilton has received 27.6% of the vote and has a two percentage point lead over Democrat Xavier Becerra.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, founder of the San Francisco hedge fund Farallon Capital, is trailing in third place — despite pumping in $215 million of his own cash into the race.
Hilton, who has been endorsed by Trump, has said California has lost its way under Democratic leadership as he bids to become the state’s first Republican governor in 15 years.
But he faces an uphill task if he makes it to the general election as Democrats make up 45% of registered voters compared to Republicans’ 25%.
He is pledging to lower prices on everything from gas to housing, reduce income taxes, create a loan program for first-time homebuyers, and freeze in-state tuition at public colleges.
Meanwhile, ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt is still waiting to find out if he will progress to November’s mayoral election in Los Angeles.
Incumbent Karen Bass will be on the ballot, having qualified for the run-off, but Pratt is currently in second place on 29.9% of the vote.
He is ahead of progressive Democrat Nithya Raman — who is currently on 22.8%.
Far-left candidate Raman sobbed during an impassioned speech Tuesday but she could end up in the run-off if a large trove of progressive mail-in ballots swing towards her.
“Don’t count Nithya Raman out yet,” Zev Yaroslavsky, the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA Luskin, told the Los Angeles Times.
“Pratt has an edge … but it’s not free from doubt at this point.”
Trump’s opposition to mail-in voting is well-documented. Last August, he wrote, “ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING.”
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS,” he said.
Ahead of the 2020 election, Trump claimed “universal mail-in voting” would lead to the most “INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history.”
With Post wires
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