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President Trump warned us. On Thursday, standing in the Oval Office, he told reporters exactly what was happening: “You see what’s happening in California. They’re rigging the election.” The mainstream media rolled their eyes, called it another conspiracy theory, and moved on to their regularly scheduled programming. But while they were busy dismissing him, something remarkable was unfolding in Los Angeles County.
Assistant US Attorney Robert Renner was inside the LA County ballot processing center on Friday, observing the count and asking questions. Not sitting in some downtown office, not issuing polite letters—actually on site, watching the process unfold. First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli announced his office is conducting a “comprehensive audit of California’s voter rolls” alongside the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. Multiple election fraud investigations are now underway in coordination with the FBI Los Angeles field office.
What exactly are they looking for? According to Essayli, California’s election system has “serious structural vulnerabilities.” Universal vote-by-mail with no voter ID requirements creates what he called “conditions where fraud can go undetected and unpunished, eroding public confidence.” That’s not some right-wing talking point—that’s a federal prosecutor describing the system as designed to obscure rather than illuminate.
The timing matters. Roughly 4 million ballots remained uncounted days after Tuesday’s primary, with Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton leading Democrat Tom Steyer by seven points but watching his margin shrink as mail-in ballots continue trickling in. Hilton told Fox’s Laura Ingraham that USPS whistleblowers claim California is indiscriminately counting mail-in ballots without verifying when they were sent. “It’s insane,” Hilton said. “This election system that they’ve created here is just another monument to their uselessness.”
California law requires ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted, with a 10-day curing period for signature issues. That means counting could stretch well into next week, long after most Americans have moved on to other news. Is it any wonder public trust has collapsed when a primary election takes longer to count than some countries take to run their entire democratic process?
The feds aren’t just observing—they’re preparing to act. Essayli made clear his office will “follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law.” Working with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, they’re specifically focused on ensuring only US citizens vote and that fraudsters face consequences.
Democrat Xavier Becerra, former Biden HHS Secretary, advanced to the governor’s general election Thursday evening, two full days after polls closed. Mayor Karen Bass secured her spot in the LA mayoral runoff. The outcomes may be determined not by who got the most votes on Election Day, but by which ballots materialize in the days and weeks that follow.
Trump saw it coming. The feds are now on the ground. And millions of Americans are left wondering whether their votes matter when the system seems designed to ensure the right people win, regardless of what the voters actually said.
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