Trump falsely claims Dems are ‘stealing’ California vote, pushes SAVE America Act

President Donald Trump Thursday falsely claimed that Democrats are “stealing” California’s primary election — and used the bogus assertion to continue pressuring lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act. 

“Look what’s happening in California, the Dumocrats, right before our very eyes, are stealing the Vote,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I hope the Republicans are watching so that they can finally pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!”

California notoriously takes a long time to count votes, mostly because of the widespread use of mail-in voting and the state’s ballot receipt deadline, which allows ballots postmarked by Election Day but received up to seven days later to be counted. As a result, elections in the Golden State — particularly close ones, like several of Tuesday’s elections — can take days, or even weeks, to tally up all the votes.

As Trump and other Republicans eagerly await to see if GOP candidates in closely watched races earned enough votes to advance to November’s general election, the prolonged process is fueling conspiracy election theories. 

Trump and the GOP are closely watching two particular elections in California: The gubernatorial primary, where Republican candidate Steve Hilton is currently leading with 56% of the votes in; and the Los Angeles mayoral race, where Spencer Platt (R) sits in second place with 62% of the votes counted. 

Since mail-in ballots tend to be the cause of California’s slow vote-counting process, Trump seized the opportunity to push Congress to act on the perpetually stalled SAVE America Act, which, among other provisions, would ban vote by mail. 

Ever since the Senate failed to pass the voter suppression bill in April — effectively dooming it for the foreseeable future — Trump has continuously pressured Congress to find other ways to pass the bill. Last month, the president suggested Congress pass the SAVE American Act by attaching it to housing and foreign intelligence surveillance legislation. Trump also suggested the Senate fire the parliamentarian, under the belief that she’s the one who is somehow obstructing the bill’s passage.