On the final day of California’s special election on redistricting, President Donald Trump alleged the state’s election system is “rigged.”
Trump, long a critic of how California conducts its elections — every registered voter is mailed a ballot and is given multiple ways to vote ahead of Election Day — called Proposition 50 “unconstitutional redistricting” and a “giant scam” on Tuesday. The president also alleged the election system is “rigged,” without citing any evidence, and is “under very serious legal and criminal review” in a post on his Truth Social account.
“It is absolutely true that there is fraud in California’s elections,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also said Tuesday.
Leavitt said California’s mail voting system is “ripe with fraud” and alleged that “fraudulent ballots (are) being mailed in” for undocumented residents and other people who are not allowed to vote.
California does not allow noncitizens to vote in elections. Leavitt told reporters during her briefing that there are “countless examples” of this alleged rampant fraud that the White House could provide. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for that information.
Related: Southern California’s guide to Prop. 50, the 2025 redistricting election
Claims of widespread fraud in California’s elections have not been substantiated, and Republican leaders in the state have encouraged their party’s voters to vote by mail and vote early.
The Republican Party of California, in advocating against Proposition 50, instructed voters to mail in their ballots. A spokesperson for the state GOP did not respond to a request for comment about the administration’s allegations.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber called Trump’s post “another baseless claim.”
“The bottom line is California elections have been validated by the courts,” said Weber, the state’s elections chief since 2021. “California voters will not be deceived by someone who consistently makes desperate, unsubstantiated attempts to dissuade Americans from participating in our democracy.”
“I encourage California voters who have not yet voted to go to the polls and join the more than 7 million voters who have already voted,” she continued. “California voters will not be sidelined from exercising their constitutional right to vote and should not let anyone deter them from exercising that right.”
California voters are largely expected to approve Proposition 50, the lone item on the statewide election’s ballot.
Backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats, the measure gerrymanders California’s congressional districts for the 2026 midterms, and the following two elections, in a way meant to boost Democrats. Supporters have billed it as a political tit for tat in response to similar partisan gerrymandering in Republican-led states at the behest of Trump.
Registered California voters were mailed ballots in early October, and the election comes to a proverbial close Tuesday evening. (Ballots received by county election officials for the next week, as long as they are postmarked no later than Nov. 4, will still be counted.)
The Trump administration’s Department of Justice has sued multiple states, California included, as part of an effort to ensure they comply with federal requirements for maintaining voter rolls.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit in late September alleged the states did not hand over all the voter registration information it sought and did not appropriately respond to questions about voter roll maintenance efforts, according to The Associated Press.
The Justice Department is also suing Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page, alleging that he did not turn over full records related to the removal of non-citizens from voter registration lists. Page, through attorneys, has maintained he followed state and federal law and could not give sensitive personal information of registrants without a subpoena or court order.
Leavitt said Tuesday that the White House is working on an executive order “to strengthen our elections in this country and to ensure there cannot be blatant fraud as we’ve seen in California with their universal mail-in voting system.”
Aside from his post with allegations about California’s elections, Trump was active on his Truth Social account Tuesday morning, calling for an end to the filibuster in the U.S. Senate as a way to end the ongoing federal government shutdown, railing against MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and endorsing congressional candidates in New York and Virginia elections.
Meanwhile, Newsom, in his own social media post on Tuesday, responded to Trump, saying: “The ramblings of an old man that knows he’s about to lose.”
Newsom and supporters of Proposition 50 billed the election as a referendum on Trump and his policies. They heavily featured the president’s likeness in advertisements in the lead-up to Election Day and messaged California’s redistricting measure as a way to save democracy.
Ahead of Election Day, the federal government said it was sending monitors to five California counties — including Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside — after a request was made by the Republican Party of California. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said those monitors, like all other election observers, have a right to watch election proceedings but cannot intimidate or harass voters.
Polls are open until 8 p.m. today.