Spurred on by Trump, the right-wing ecosystem is making baseless claims of voter fraud in California

In the days immediately following last week’s primary election, the vast community of right-wing bloggers, X-users, podcasters and YouTuber influencers trumpeted that California, the state they love to hate, was going red.

In early reports of vote counts in the first two primaries, Republican Steve Hilton, a British-born former Fox News commentator, leads the field of 61 candidates for governor.

Meanwhile, Republican Spencer Pratt came in second in the Los Angeles mayoral race after airing a series of AI-generated parodies of Mayor Karen Bass.

As the count continued, Pratt dropped to third. As of Monday, Hilton was still in second place behind Democratic front-runner Xavier Becerra, but his leadership over billionaire Tom Steyer had shrunk to about 5 percentage points and the outcome was still uncertain.

Meanwhile, the right-wing media troupe evolved from rejoicing to complaints about how long it takes to count the votes and allegations, without evidence, that fraud has been committed.

They were joined by President Donald Trump, who in an interview aired on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” accused California officials of “fraud,” citing a protracted ballot count.

“Do you have any evidence to support that?” interviewer Kristen Welker asked Trump.

“All I have to do is look,” he replied.

“But sir, that’s not proof. That’s how they count votes in California,” Welker insisted.

“No, they’re guilty … just like you’re guilty,” Trump replied. “Your press is crooked and Meet the Press is crooked.

“Either you’re guilty or you’re stupid,” he continued. “You know this election is rigged. Your network knows it’s rigged.”

Finally, Trump decided to “give up,” took down his microphone and told Welker, “Thank you, honey, have a good time.”

With Trump setting the tone, social media warriors will continue to beat the drum for baseless election fraud. House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a chord on Monday, saying that “everyone instinctively knows something is wrong.” On Friday, Assistant US Attorney Bill Esailly posted this on X federal prosecutors worked with the FBI about “numerous investigations into election fraud,” but did not elaborate.

Counting votes in California is really taking a long timea syndrome rooted in decades of efforts by dominant Democrats to increase the number of ballots cast. They describe it as strengthening the democratic process, but also believe it will help them prevail in close elections.

It’s not a scam, but it’s certainly partisan-motivated, and it started after Democrats suffered a string of legislative setbacks in the late 1970s. To stem the bleeding, Democrats rigged legislative and congressional districts after the 1980 census and made it much easier for voters to use so-called absentee ballots to vote by mail.

Ironically, however, they failed to capitalize in the 1982 election, as Republicans used it to very narrowly elect Attorney General George Deukmedjian for governor — even though polls suggested he would lose to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.

Democrats continued to expand voter rolls and voter turnout with automatic voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles and allowing election day registration. The Voters’ Choice Act 2016 made in-person voting more difficult than reducing polling places while encouraging postal voting.

“Following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the state mailed a ballot to every voter by default. The entire additional process for mail-in ballots now applies to nearly double the volume of 2018,” states the a recent guest comment on CalMatters.

“Signatures must be verified on each ballot to ensure the right person cast it. It’s an election security measure designed to instill the confidence in the election that critics of the slow count say they want.

“A real solution would focus more precisely on the counting process itself, seeking to tighten it without disenfranchising voters.”

Ironically, then, the state’s efforts to verify the legitimacy of the ballots prolonged the count, which then led to accusations that the count was rigged.