It was a late-night missive familiar to anyone who follows President Trump on social media.
“There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California,” Mr. Trump wrote at 1:05 a.m. on Thursday, claiming without evidence that election fraud worthy of investigation by the Department of Justice had occurred in Los Angeles. “Why the vote counting DELAY???”
Though the declaration by the president did not reflect a new posture — for years Mr. Trump has falsely claimed that American elections are rife with widespread fraud — his focus on a process relatively unique to California could have significant consequences for November.
The state is set to play a potentially decisive role in determining which party controls Congress. Because of California’s meticulous review process and heavy reliance on mail ballots, the country may be waiting days or weeks for election officials to count legally cast ballots before control of Congress is established.
While the time it takes to count votes in California is slightly different compared with other states, no evidence has emerged that its track record of longer counts has invited fraud.
The president’s posts on Thursday came amid a surge of similar false claims from other conservative influencers, raising concerns among defenders of U.S. elections of what it could foretell about November, when control of both houses of Congress will be on the line.
“It’s disturbing that the president of the United States still hasn’t the slightest idea how elections are run in the United States,” said David Becker, a former voting rights lawyer for the Justice Department who now runs the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonpartisan group that works to build confidence in elections. “He appears to be very worried about the verdict of the voters, and is trying to sow the seeds of disinformation early.”
The president’s claims could also pose a more immediate threat: Spencer Pratt, a reality television star endorsed by Mr. Trump, is currently in place to make a runoff election for Los Angeles mayor, but only 62 percent of the vote had been counted as of Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Trump’s posts have potentially laid the groundwork for the president’s supporters to doubt or contest the election should the Democratic challenger, Nithya Raman, end up ahead of Mr. Pratt.
Adding to the suspicions of Trump supporters in past elections has been the so-called “red mirage” — a common phenomenon with the rise of mail voting, which Democrats take advantage of at greater rates than Republicans. Because those votes are typically counted last, Republican candidates can appear ahead for a period of time, but then lose their leads. Mr. Trump has pointed to such trends and falsely accused election officials of “dumping” fraudulent ballots into the mix.
Neither the White House nor the California secretary of state’s office immediately responded to requests for comment.
The office of Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote in a post on social media that “Trump is lying about California again.”
“There is a lot of misinformation floating around about California’s election — including from the President,” the office said in another post. “And yes, for the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too.”
In the 2020 election, Mr. Trump attempted to claim victory on election night — saying, “Frankly, we did win this election” — even as tens of thousands of mail ballots were still being counted.
There has been no evidence of any fraud, malfeasance or even administrative missteps so far in the primary vote counting in California. Officials there have attempted to telegraph that slow vote tabulation is just part of the process. In 2024, the state was still counting votes a month after Election Day.
This year, in an effort to speed up results, California counties are supposed to finish counting their ballots and release their results on or before the 13th day after the election. But that is unlikely to satisfy the president.
But Thursday afternoon, roughly 12 hours after his last post, Mr. Trump doubled down with a similar message.
