Trump’s election fraud claims put pressure on California to speed up vote count

California is facing growing pressure to respond to criticism of the state’s lengthy vote-counting process after this month’s primary fueled fresh backlash and new questions about how long voters should have to wait for election results.

The issue drew heightened attention this month as late-counted ballots reshaped several high-profile races, including the Los Angeles mayoral contest, giving President Trump and some conservative allies an opening to cast doubt on the results and renew allegations of election impropriety.

Election officials and campaign operatives from both parties reject those claims and say there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. But the latest round of criticism has intensified concerns that lengthy delays can invite public skepticism and misinformation, prompting new discussions among about whether change is necessary.

“We’ve been having this conversation for four years in California, but I think the intense national focus on California’s lengthy period of casting votes, in an election that’s frankly not that close, I think it may spur action,” Thad Kousser, political science professor at University of California San Diego, told The Hill. 

“State officials need to recognize the reasonable voter interest in learning results in less than a week and the practical reality that, in the vacuum created by the lack of results, rumors and conspiracies will fly,” he added.

California-based GOP strategist Rob Stutzman told The Hill that there’s “zero evidence” of election fraud and that “people on both sides of the aisle that work in the campaign business are confident in the security of ballots.”

“But the length [of time] that it takes to count the ballots has become a bit of a joke and leaves a lot of daylight to be exploited by conspiracy theorists or by people who just want to advance the notion of stolen elections, like the president does,” Stutzman continued.

California notoriously takes longer than most states to count ballots because it relies heavily on mail-in voting and undergoes a strict signature verification process for each ballot.

Many Democrats have acknowledged the need for a faster vote count, including Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who sought to preempt potential fallout by sending a letter to election officials in May encouraging them to hurry the process, writing, “the longer the voting count takes, the more mis- and disinformation spreads.”

But the backlash ensued, as election officials were hit with a swarm of last-minute mail-in ballots, largely from Democrats who waited until close to Election Day to vote in the........

© The Hill