California officials push back after Trump claims Prop. 50 election is ‘rigged’
California’s elected officials Tuesday afternoon responded to allegations that President Donald Trump levied on social media that California’s special election is “rigged.”
“The bottom line is California elections have been validated by the courts,” Secretary of State Shirley Weber wrote in an emailed statement. “California voters will not be deceived by someone who consistently makes desperate, unsubstantiated attempts to dissuade Americans from participating in our democracy.”
In the statement, Weber asked the Trump administration to point to proof that any irregularities exist.
The back-and-forth was the latest installment of a fight that’s been brewing in the weeks leading up to the special election on Proposition 50, with Trump laying the groundwork for election skepticism, and California officials warning that the president would try to intimidate voters and invalidate the results.
In a Truth Social post Tuesday morning, Trump wrote: “The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED. All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!”
When asked about the allegations Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters it was “a fact” that there is fraud in California elections.
“They have a universal mail-in voting system, which we know is ripe for fraud,” she said. She added the state has “fraudulent ballots that are being mailed in, in the names of other people, in the names of illegal aliens who shouldn’t be voting in American elections,” and said the White House would provide proof.
Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to both Trump and Leavitt on X Tuesday, posting a video in the afternoon saying Trump “does not believe in free and fair elections.”
Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Menlo Park, authored the 2021 law to make California a vote-by-mail state.
In a statement Tuesday, he compared the allegations to a 2017 Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to find voter fraud, which was dissolved in 2018.
“This time is no different, but damage is still being done by this incessant eroding of Americans’ faith in our democracy. It is truly un-American.”
Fresno poll observers noted, affiliations unknown
On Oct. 24, the U.S. attorney general said she’d be sending federal election observers to five California counties at the request of the California Republican Party. The deployment of observers is not itself unusual, but given posts by Trump on social media, top Democrats warned the move could be a harbinger of false election fraud claims.
The counties included Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside.
During voting on Tuesday, some voters told The Fresno Bee they’d noticed observers, but weren’t sure their affiliations.
James Kus, the Fresno County clerk/registrar of voters said Tuesday he knew of only two federal observers around the county’s polling sites and that far more observers from the state level or state advocacy organizations were present.
The Fresno Bee’s Liliana Fannin and Thaddeus Miller contributed reporting.
This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 5:48 PM.
