California's slow ballot count makes it a target for critics. It doesn't mean elections are rigged

By — Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/californias-slow-ballot-count-makes-it-a-target-for-critics-it-doesnt-mean-elections-are-rigged Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter California's slow ballot count makes it a target for critics. It doesn't mean elections are rigged Politics Jun 4, 2026 4:49 PM EDT Days after the state's primary, California voters are in a familiar position -- waiting to find out which candidates will go on to the general election in their most high-profile races, for governor and Los Angeles mayor. LIVE RESULTS: California midterm primaries It's not surprising those have yet to be resolved, along with several closely contested congressional races, because the state routinely takes days, or even weeks, to fully tally races. Nor is it unusual for President Donald Trump to complain about the pace of the count and allege fraud, as he did Thursday. It's something he's done repeatedly in the past. What was unusual was that Trump announced that his Department of Justice was investigating the count: "Why the vote counting DELAY???," the president posted on his social media account. Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. He suggested that the state's Democrats were somehow cheating so two candidates he favors — Republican Steve Hilton in the governor's race and Spencer Pratt in the nonpartisan mayor's race — would be bumped from the top two slots and therefore ineligible for the November general election. "You see what's happening in California, they're rigging the election," he told reporters during an Oval Office gathering Thursday. READ MORE: A rare Trump setback, a missing congressman and Spencer Pratt: 6 takeaways from the latest midterm primaries Trump's posts prompted a response from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose press office posted a clip of a CNN video explaining how the nation's most populous state prioritizes accuracy and accessibility over speed, drawing out the count. "For the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too," Newsom's office posted. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles declined to comment about whether it was investigating the ballot counting. Slow count designed to ensure accuracy, but opens door to election lies The law in California practically mandates a drawn-out count. Ballots are mailed to every eligible voter — some 23 million of them — and the state has permissive rules for returning them. They will be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive at an election office within seven days. Only after the polls have closed and most of the country has gone to sleep can local election workers begin the lengthy process of verifying the legitimacy of the late-arriving mail ballots and then start to tabulate them. If a voters' sign