Trump alleges – President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats are trying to “steal” California’s governor and Los Angeles mayor primary outcomes, pointing to “late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS” amid vote-counting that can take weeks to certify. Offi
By Wednesday. June 3. the vote counting in California was still moving—just over half of results in the governor’s primary had been reported. and Los Angeles was already setting up a November runoff for mayor. But the suspense wasn’t just on the ballot totals. It was also on President Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts.
“The Dumocrats are at it again!. They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY. AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES. PRIMARY. AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. ” Trump wrote on Wednesday. June 3. He added that Democrats were working with “very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”.
In a separate Truth Social post on June 3. Trump said there is “big cheating” by Democrats in California. claimed “votes are all tied up. ” and referenced an “investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles,” without specifying what that investigation is about. He questioned the delay in counting, writing: “Why the vote counting DELAY???”.
Trump’s allegations landed as California’s results continued to roll in and as close races remained unsettled. In the governor’s race—still too close to call—Republican Steve Hilton led with 27.6% of the vote. followed closely by Democrat Xavier Becerra at 25.5%. based on results from the California Secretary of State on June 3.
In Los Angeles, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass is heading to a runoff election in November. She is expected to face either Spencer Pratt. the former reality TV star. or Nithya Raman. a progressive Los Angeles city councilmember. Results just after 4 p.m. on June 3 showed Bass leading with about 35% of the vote. followed by Pratt at nearly 30% and Raman at 22.81%. according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
Trump’s claims also collided with the simple reality that California’s election calendar is built for slow certification. not overnight answers. The California Secretary of State, Shirley N. Weber, told voters in a June 2 news release: “This is normal … We have a process that by law ensures both voting rights and the integrity of elections. so I would call on all Californians to be patient.”.
Californians weren’t alone in noting the lengthy timeline. Thad Kousser. a professor of political science at the University of California. San Diego. said California’s vote-counting process “has become a national narrative about California elections.” In an interview last week. Kousser said: “In California. it takes a long time to certify votes. to verify the signatures. to then count the ballots; all of that process takes a while. It may take a while for us to learn who the top candidates who emerge are.”.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office responded publicly on X on June 3. It wrote that “Trump is lying about California again. ” and shared a post from CNN’s Elex Michaelson that included a video about the state’s ballot counting. The Newsom press office captioned the post: “There is a lot of misinformation floating around about California’s election — including from the President. This explainer is worth a watch. And yes, for the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too.”.
As for Trump’s suggestion that law enforcement is investigating the delay, the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not confirm any action tied to the president’s remarks. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. said “no comment” when asked by the USA TODAY Network for confirmation about whether any investigations are related to the president’s comments at this time. The California Secretary of State did not immediately respond to a question about whether it was aware of the investigation Trump referred to.
What’s clear from the official timetable is that there are multiple stages between Election Day and certification. Counties have weeks after Election Day to process, verify, and count ballots before certifying results. That’s why close races can shift long after the last voter leaves a polling place. On election night. many of the ballots being seen are the “easy” ones—such as vote-by-mail ballots that arrived and were verified before Election Day. Other ballots are still in the pipeline. including those arriving in the days after (as long as they were postmarked by Election Day).
The mechanics matter because they are built into California’s voting rules. With each mail-in ballot. elections officials compare the signature on the returned vote-by-mail envelope to the voter’s signature on their voter registration card. Various factors go into determining whether the signatures match. including the slant of the signature. whether it is printed or written in cursive. and the size. proportions. or scale.
Vote-by-mail was Californians’ preferred method in both the 2024 primary and general elections. During the 2024 primary. more than 7.7 million votes were cast statewide. and 90% of those were mail-in ballots—meaning officials had to verify the signatures on more than 6.8 million ballots before they could be counted. For the November 2024 general election, 80% of cast ballots—about 13 million—were vote-by-mail.
California also processes conditional voter and provisional ballots that add to the timeline. The state allows same-day voter registration, also known as conditional voter registration. Voters who need to register or re-register within 14 days of an election can do so at their county elections office. polling place. or vote center. These ballots will be processed and counted after the county elections office completes the voter registration process.
Provisional ballots are counted only after verification. Voters cast provisional ballots for a wide array of reasons. including if their name does not appear at a polling place or if they’ve made a mistake on their ballot. After a provisional ballot is cast. it will not be counted until election officials confirm the voter is registered to vote in that county and has not already voted in that election.
Even the postmark rule can extend counting. State law allows vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive within a specified window afterward. For the primary. ballots needed to be postmarked on or before June 2 and received by county elections office no later than June 10.
California’s scale helps explain why the numbers can keep changing while the public waits. As of May 18, a record total of 23,155,447 Californians were registered to vote. While not all registered voters are expected to have voted. county election officials estimate that more than 5 million ballots were cast statewide.
Taken together, the timeline that Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber describes—paired with the signature verification. conditional registration. provisional ballot checks. and the rules governing postmarked vote-by-mail ballots—sets the stage for exactly the kind of delayed totals that Trump publicly flagged. In a state where millions of ballots can still be moving through verification and processing after Election Day. the margin can stay fluid until final certification.
For now. the results remain incomplete enough that the governor’s race is still too close to call with just over half of results in as of June 3. even as Bass’s path to a November runoff is clear. Whether voters interpret Trump’s claims as a timely warning or as political pressure may depend on what happens next: the certification timeline. the remaining ballot counts. and the final totals that determine who emerges at the top.
Trump California governor primary Los Angeles mayor runoff Karen Bass Steve Hilton Xavier Becerra Spencer Pratt Nithya Raman Shirley N. Weber Gavin Newsom vote-by-mail mail-in ballots election certification signature verification