First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli is accusing California of blocking a federal audit of its voter rolls as accusations of a rigged primary election swirl.
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Woke Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate Nithya Raman, who previously conceded defeat, surged into second place over the weekend with the help of late mail-in ballots, bumping popular Republican trailblazer Spencer Pratt into third place.
As of Monday, Raman led Pratt by roughly 3,000 votes with about 83 percent of post-election ballots received.
President Trump commented on the stunning reversal on Truth Social, Monday: “Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. 3rd World Nation. Rigged Elections!” Trump declared. “Now they’ll be working on great guy Steve Hilton. Won’t have results for, possibly, TWO WEEKS, according to officials.”
Despite the setback, Pratt remained optimistic on Monday.
“Folks, we’re dealing with a fraction of a percentage point difference, there’s still hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding, and LA officials have given us the next 3 weeks to count!” he posted on X. “Let’s git-r-dun!”
The Republican also posted on Sunday: “They’re not the only ones who know where to find votes 😉”
In a positive development that could profoundly effect the upcoming midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to rule that states cannot count mail-in ballots received after Election Day. SCOTUS is expected to issue a landmark decision on Watson v. Republican National Committee by the end of June.
Meanwhile, Essayli announced last week that his office has opened “multiple election fraud investigations” in coordination with the FBI, citing “serious structural vulnerabilities” such as mail-in voting and the lack of photo ID requirements.
A Justice Department attorney was dispatched on Friday to observe ballot processing in Los Angeles County.
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, led by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, last year requested full access to voter data including names, dates of birth, addresses, and ID numbers under the National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act.
The Justice Department has since sued 29 states and the District of Columbia for refusing to provide the unredacted voter registration rolls.
On Sunday, Essayli issued a statement saying the state had refused to provide a complete electronic copy of its statewide voter registration list and related records needed to verify voter eligibility and assess compliance with federal election laws.
The prosecutor stated that “California allows first-time voters to register using forms of ID that most Americans would find surprising.”
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Types of identification accepted by election officials in the Golden State include gym membership cards, employer ID cards, credit or debit cards, prescription drug labels, and insurance cards, Essayli noted, while pointing out that California provides free health coverage to illegal immigrants.
He said these types of IDs were permitted when a potential voter failed to provide a Social Security number or driver’s license at registration.
“Our office believes this policy deserves a closer look,” the US Attorney said.
We also have serious concerns about how California maintains its voter rolls. There are open questions about whether the state is promptly removing deceased voters, people who have moved, and individuals convicted of disqualifying felonies.
On top of that, California allows third parties to collect and turn in ballots on voters’ behalf (a practice known as ballot harvesting) with few restrictions. This makes it difficult to track who actually received, completed, and submitted each ballot.
For over a year, the Department of Justice has been trying to audit California’s voter rolls. Federal law gives the Attorney General the authority to review state voter files and confirm that only eligible U.S. citizens are voting in federal elections.
Last August, Dhillon sent a letter to California Secretary of State Shirley Webber explaining the DOJ’s legal authority, but the state refused to comply, citing “state privacy laws.”
Essayli said their argument “does not hold up because those laws don’t apply to the federal government in this context.”
“Ask yourselves — why does California (& many other states) hide their voter rolls from the federal government at the same time they gladly hand them over to liberal activist groups?!” Dhillon posted on X.
Notably, California ranks 50th on Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard.
The DOJ’s lawsuit against California is currently before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“If California genuinely wants voters to trust its elections, it should open its records, not fight to keep them closed,” Essayli said.
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