Gavin Newsom tried to take on President Dnald Trump over his attacks on the state’s slow vote-counting process — but even the governor’s office admitted it was frustrated, too.
The president on Thursday claimed that Democrats were “trying to steal” the California gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral primaries and said there would be a probe into the sluggish effort.
“The Dumocrats are at it again,” Trump raged on Truth Social. “Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.”
“There’s big cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks,” Trump wrote in another post.
In response, Newsom’s press office first accused the president of “lying about California again” in a post on X before acknowledging its own desire to see ballots counted faster.
“There is a lot of misinformation floating around about California’s election — including from the President, the post read, while sharing an explainer video from CNN on the counting efforts.
“And yes, for the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too,” the post concluded.
California’s election returns often stretch for days and weeks because the state accepts vote-by-mail ballots that can be postmarked by Election Day and received days later. Those “late” ballots can matter in close races such as this year’s governor’s race.
That fact fact seems to have only fueled Trump’s known distaste for mail-in voting, which he alleges is highly susceptible to fraud compared to in-person voting.
Before the primary, Newsom demanded California counties speed up vote counting to halt “mis- and disinformation” about elections.
“Time is of the essence in preventing election lies from taking hold,” Newsom wrote in a May 4 letter to election clerks in all 58 California counties.
California’s lengthy vote counting has been the subject of ridicule for many years. Currently, the process is putting the tight gubernatorial race in suspense as voters wait to see if progressive Tom Steyer is able to make it into the top two spots to advance to a runoff.
Trump has taken interest in California’s elections this year, offering words of support for Spencer Pratt in the LA mayoral contest and Republican Steve Hilton for governor. Both are so far on track to advance to the general election.
