California Election Fraud Allegations and Ballot Counting Update

California election officials reported at noon on June 8 that Democrat Xavier Becerra had doubled his margin over Republican Steve Hilton, while Hilton's lead over Democrat Tom Steyer for the crucial second spot on the ballot had been reduced by about 10%. The ongoing vote count has shifted dramatically since the June 2 primary election, with Becerra now leading Hilton by nearly 88,000 votes after trailing by more than 120,000 votes the day after the election.

According to the Secretary of State's noon report, Becerra has 1,897,716 votes (27.1%), Hilton has 1,810,110 votes (25.9%), and Steyer has 1,504,358 votes (21.5%). Approximately 2.4 million ballots remain to be counted, with election workers processing about 600,000 ballots since Friday.

The state estimates that 9.4 million votes were cast, representing a 40% turnout, higher than most non-presidential year primary statewide elections, which typically see around 35%.

On Sunday, President Trump called the California primary "a rigged election" during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press. Trump told host Kristen Welker, "They're cheating on the election," but refused to provide any evidence.

He then accused the media of being crooked, saying, "Your elections are crooked, and you're crooked, Meet the Press is crooked, and so is ABC and CBS and CNN – you're one-sided, crooked networks." Trump then stood up and walked out of the interview. Later that day, federal prosecutors accused California of blocking access to voter registration records as a legal battle over the maintenance of voter data continues in federal court.

Despite the allegations, Hilton, who was endorsed by Trump, is likely to secure a spot on the November ballot due to his 300,000-vote margin over Steyer. Steyer told his supporters, "We're going to wait until every ballot is counted.

We're going to give democracy time to work. And we know we finished really strong." A 100,000-vote swing on June 5, the fourth day of vote counting, had bounced Becerra back into a slim 39,426-vote lead over Hilton.

After another 600,000 mailed ballots were counted over the weekend, Becerra's margin continued to grow.

Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, announced on Friday that he was conducting "multiple" investigations of vote-counting in Southern California, apparently based on Trump's claims the day before, without evidence, of cheating by Democrats in the primaries.

The state law requires county elections officials to report final official results to the Secretary of State by July 3, and the Secretary of State has until July 10 to certify the results of the election. As the count continues, each day that Hilton and Becerra maintain their current percentages, Steyer's chances grow dimmer.