President Donald Trump has voiced his concerns over the slow vote counting in California’s gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral elections, alleging that the Democratic leadership is engaging in “massive fraud.”
While the polls in California officially closed at 8 PM local time on Tuesday, vote counting seemed to be lagging as of Thursday morning.
“There was a huge amount of mail-in voting that was done very late,” Trump stated.
As per the latest reports, only 56% of votes have been counted in the gubernatorial election, and about 62% in the mayoral race. This marks a 2% drop for both races compared to Wednesday morning figures.
In the contest to succeed Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, former Fox News host and small business operator Steve Hilton (R) is slightly ahead of former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra (D), while climate activist Tom Steyer (D) trails in third place.
As it stands, Mr. Hilton has around 1,421,466 votes, Mr. Becerra has approximately 1,318,536 votes, and Mr. Steyer sits at 1,019,332 votes.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump prematurely declared Hilton the victor, despite reports from the Associated Press and other election tracking services indicating that it was too early to declare a winner.
“Congratulations to Steve Hilton for coming in first place in last night’s California gubernatorial election,” Trump wrote on social media. “If the people of California are smart, which I believe they are, they will place Steve in the governor’s mansion and witness improvements at a pace perhaps never seen before. I know Steve; he’s a dedicated winner and will turn California around quickly. The federal government will support him!”
The two leading candidates will face off again in November.
Incumbent Karen Bass is currently the only candidate in the LA mayoral race with sufficient votes to advance to a runoff in November, according to the Associated Press.
Former reality star Spencer Pratt is in second place with 157,116 votes, while Los Angeles City Council member Nitya Raman follows in third with 119,809 votes.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk mentioned that many mail-in ballots were returned on Election Day.
Trump accused “Democrats” in California of trying to “steal the California gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral primaries from two leading Republican candidates.”
He reiterated his claims about the significant delays in mail-in ballots on his social media platforms.
Additionally, the federal prosecutor’s office in Los Angeles is currently looking into the vote counting delays.
“There was rampant fraud by the Democrats in California. All votes are stalled; they might not get counted for weeks. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles is investigating. Why is it taking so long to count the votes?” Trump complained.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has not provided any comments regarding this matter.
