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President Trump isn’t mincing words about what he sees happening in California. As vote counting drags on in key races for governor and Los Angeles mayor, Trump told reporters Thursday, “They’re rigging the election,” pointing to the suspicious pattern of late-arriving mail-in ballots that continue to reshape results days after polls closed. The numbers tell a troubling story. Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton held first place with 27.5% of the vote, but over four million ballots remain uncounted. In the Los Angeles mayor’s race, Spencer Pratt surged to an early lead on election night, only to watch his advantage erode as mail-in votes materialized. As of Thursday afternoon, only 62% of ballots had been counted. California’s vote-by-mail system, which accepts ballots for days after Election Day, creates what Trump calls a “lawless” environment ripe for manipulation. “They found a lot of mail-in ballots last night, shockingly,” he said, the sarcasm evident. The president tied his concerns to the SAVE America Act, legislation that would end no-excuse mail-in voting and require proof of citizenship to vote—a bill the House has passed three times already. Why does one political party consistently oppose election integrity measures that vast majorities of Americans support? And why does California’s counting process always seem to break in one direction? These aren’t conspiracy theories. They’re questions that millions of voters are asking as they watch results shift under the cover of bureaucratic delay. The machinery of democracy only works when citizens trust it. Right now, that trust is fraying.
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