Trump claims California election was rigged. Is he correct?

As Californians voted on Tuesday for a caller legislature map, United States President Donald Trump falsely said the process was rigged.

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote successful California is simply a GIANT SCAM successful that the full process, successful peculiar the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” Trump wrote connected his Truth Social platform.

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“All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, wherever the Republicans successful that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is nether precise superior ineligible and transgression review. STAY TUNED!”

A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for Trump’s grounds that the predetermination was rigged.

“It is conscionable a fact,” Leavitt said. “They person a cosmopolitan mail-in voting system, which we cognize is ripe for fraud, … fraudulent ballots that are being mailed in, successful the names of different radical and the names of amerciable aliens who shouldn’t beryllium voting successful American elections.”

Democratic authorities officials successful California, including Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber, challenged Trump’s assertion. “Where precisely is this fraud? Ramblings don’t equate with fact,” Weber said.

When PolitiFact contacted the White House, a spokesperson responded with respective points, galore of which had besides been shared successful an X post. These points criticised California’s voting strategy but included lone 1 lawsuit of a idiosyncratic charged with elector fraud. The White House besides misrepresented the numbers connected elector registration and elector removal to enactment its claims.

Trump has repeatedly spread falsehoods about “rigged” elections, including in California. Rigging a authorities predetermination would necessitate predetermination officials crossed the authorities to enactment unneurotic to perpetrate felonies. There is nary grounds that happened.

What did happen: The mostly Democratic-voting authorities overwhelmingly approved a proposition to redistrict its legislature representation to summation the accidental of adding 5 Democratic seats to the US House of Representatives to negate a akin redistricting successful Texas aimed astatine adding Republican seats.

White House grounds does not beryllium the predetermination was rigged

Vote by message system: Much of the White House’s grounds criticises California’s strategy of mailing ballots to each progressive registered voters. It is 1 of 8 states that behaviour elections by specified a system. Millions of ballots are sent to Californians and not returned, arsenic the White House noted, but that doesn’t beryllium fraud. Election workers verify elector identities by matching signatures connected the message ballot envelopes with registration records.

Although voters are mailed ballots, they tin take to formed a ballot successful idiosyncratic instead. Voters mostly don’t person to supply an ID. Election workers tin inquire for an ID if the idiosyncratic is voting for the archetypal clip and didn’t supply an ID erstwhile registering to vote.

The White House cherry-picked 1 condemnation from a 2005 bipartisan study that said: “Absentee ballots stay the largest root of imaginable elector fraud.” Although the study mostly communicated a dim presumption of absentee voting, it didn’t telephone for its elimination. It recommended ways to amended information and further study.

Noncitizen voters: The White House said, “San Francisco allows noncitizens to ballot successful section elections, which creates a precocious hazard of fraud successful national elections,” and acknowledged noncitizens aren’t allowed to ballot successful national elections. The metropolis allows noncitizens to ballot lone in school committee elections.

The US Department of Justice sued Orange County, California, successful June aft it redacted idiosyncratic identifying accusation erstwhile it provided records to the section astir 17 noncitizens connected the elector rolls.

Bob Page, the region registrar of voters, said the 17 radical self-reported that they wanted to cancel their elector registrations, including 8 who voted earlier they cancelled their elector registration.

Duplicate registrations: “California reported 2,178,551 duplicate registrations successful the 2024 predetermination rhythm – 15.6 percent of full registered voters,” the White House said.

The connection misleadingly gives the content that those radical look connected the elector rolls much than once. “Duplicate registrations” notation to the fig of registration applications that California predetermination officials received but didn’t process due to the fact that they were identical to existing registrations. Duplicate registration tin hap by accident; immoderate radical registry and hide they did truthful oregon taxable registrations some done the message and online.

The fig the White House cited represents the fig of times California predetermination officials caught the mistake, not made one.

The fig comes from a 2024 nationalist survey connected voting enactment and predetermination medication from 2022 to 2024 by the bipartisan US Election Assistance Commission.

The nationalist mean for duplicate applications is 12.7 percent.

Removing voters aft death: The White House said, “California lone removed 378,349 registered voters for decease (11.9 percent), which was good beneath the nationalist average,” betwixt the 2022 and 2024 elections.

This fig is cherry-picked. The White House cited voters removed due to the fact that of death, which is conscionable 1 crushed for striking a elector from the rolls.

From 2022 to 2024, California removed much than 3.177 cardinal voters from its rolls for each reasons, including death, according to the aforesaid predetermination survey. That’s a 12.4 percent removal complaint of each registered voters, compared with the nationalist mean of 9.1 percent.

California removed a larger proportionality of voters for reasons different than death, specified arsenic moving oregon nonaccomplishment to instrumentality a confirmation notice.

Voter fraud: The White House pointed to 1 pistillate charged with elector fraud.

In September, authorities charged a pistillate from Costa Mesa, California, with 5 felonies for illegally registering her canine to vote. The dog’s ballot was counted successful the 2021 gubernatorial callback predetermination but rejected successful the 2022 primary. The Orange County District Attorney’s bureau said the pistillate “self-reported that she had registered her canine to vote”.

Laura Lee Yourex, 62, said she wanted to beryllium a constituent astir flaws successful the authorities voting system, according to her lawyer.

The blimpish Heritage Foundation’s elector fraud database shows 69 cases successful California from 1982 to 2025. The database shows dozens of cases successful states that ballot chiefly Republican, specified arsenic Florida, which does not nonstop a message ballot to each voters.

Our ruling

Trump said voting successful California is “rigged”.

The White House’s mentation misrepresented information astir duplicate registrations, cherry-picked information astir dormant elector removals from registration rolls, pointed to 1 pistillate charged with elector fraud among astir 23 cardinal registered voters and baselessly blamed San Francisco’s allowance for noncitizen voting successful schoolhouse committee elections.

The White House did not beryllium California voting is “rigged”. We complaint Trump’s connection false.

Caryn Baird contributed to this fact-check.