Donald Trump said a federal investigation was underway over ‘BIG cheating’ by Democrats in California as votes trickled in for local and state elections.

Trump raged about the opposition party trying to ‘STEAL’ the governor of California away from Republican Steve Hilton while simultaneously taking the mayor of Los Angeles from Spencer Pratt. 

‘There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up,’ Trump in a Truth Social post early Thursday morning. 

‘May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???’ 

In another post, the President flatly claims that the Democrats were stealing votes with mail-in ballots.  

‘The Dumocrats are at it again! They are trying to STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES, PRIMARY, AWAY FROM TWO GREAT REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES. Here we go with the very late and massive numbers of MAIL IN BALLOTS.’

Spencer Pratt was in position for a run-off in the primary for Los Angeles mayor – but the Republican reality star was in a tight race with Leftist Nithya Raman.

In the primary for California governor, Republican Steve Hilton had an outright lead with 26.7 percent of the vote but with only 56 percent of the votes in. 

Donald Trump said that the Democrat Party is involved in ‘BIG cheating’ in California as slow vote counts delay confirmation of nominees for local and state elections

The most anticipated results are in the California governor’s race and Los Angeles mayoral election – where independent Spencer Pratt (pictured) and Republican Steve Hilton look set to advance to runoffs

Only mayoral incumbent Karen Bass has been confirmed as advancing to the general election over 24 hours after the polls closed.  

Counties are expected to continue to release results over the next several weeks. 

The state has a history of substantial vote updates after Election Day that can sometimes shift the outcome of elections as late-arriving mail and drop-off votes are counted.

This isn’t unusual or unexpected, as the nation’s most populous state is consistently among the slowest to report all its election results. 

Compare it to a state like Florida, the third-largest, which finished counting its votes four days after Election Day.

In 2020, Florida reported the results of nearly 99 percent of ballots cast within a few hours of polls closing. 

In California, almost one-third of ballots were uncounted after election night, and the state was making almost daily updates to its count through December 3, a full month after Election Day. 

California, which has long had a culture of voting absentee, started moving toward all-mail elections last decade.

Hilton, a former Fox News commentator, leads the California governor’s race outright but has yet to advance to the runoff due to the late returns

The electronic screen of a voting booth is seen at a polling station during early voting ahead of the US midterm elections in Los Angeles

All-mail systems will almost always prolong the count. Mail ballots require additional verification steps — each must be opened individually, validated and processed — so they can take longer to tabulate than ballots cast in person that are then fed into a scanner at a neighborhood polling place. 

In 2016, California passed a bill allowing counties to opt in to all-mail elections before instituting it statewide on a temporary basis in 2020 and enshrining it in law in time for the 2022 elections.

In recent years, the thousands of California voters who drop off their mail ballots on Election Day created a bottleneck on election night. 

In the past five general elections, California has tabulated an average of 38 percent of its vote after Election Day. Two years ago, in the 2022 midterm elections, half the state’s votes were counted after Election Day.

Slower counts have come alongside later mail ballot deadlines. In 2015, California implemented its first postmark deadline, meaning that the state can count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as the Postal Service receives the ballot by Election Day. 

The late returns could play a legitimate factor in whether or not the likes of reality star Pratt and former Fox News commentator Hilton get a shot at establishment Democrats.

The two are currently in the top two places in the state’s ‘jungle’ system which allows candidates from all parties to run in the primary. 

If no candidate reaches a majority vote, the top two advance to a November runoff election regardless of party. 

Karen Bass is the only candidate to have advanced to the runoff in the Los Angeles mayoral election

Leftist Nithya Raman could potentially usurp Pratt’s second place position

While Republicans and conservative-leaning candidates tend to perform well in the early returns, the late mail can often lean to the left.  

In the mayor’s race, as of late Thursday night, only Bass has advanced to a November runoff with 35 percent of the vote. 

Pratt remains solidly in second place with 29.9 percent of the ballots, while Raman is at 22.8 percent.

However, in California, ballots counted late tend to be among liberal Democrats.

Raman had a 10.4 percent advantage over Pratt in ballots counted on Wednesday, which has led to her closing the gap.

Election data site VoteHub reported that around 333,000 ballots remain to be counted in the race. 

Raman would likely need to beat Pratt by 11.2 percent in the remaining vote to advance to the runoff, with her Wednesday numbers coming up just short of that mark.

Similarly, Hilton has an outright lead in the governor’s race with 26.7 percent of the vote but with only 56 percent of the votes in.

Xavier Becerra could potentially face Hilton in a runoff election

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer is hoping for a comeback in the late ballot to railroad one of the two leading candidates

Former Biden Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is in second place with 25.6 percent of the vote.

However, either still could be overtaking by billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyer, who sits at 19.8 percent.

Steyer needs to run about 17.2 points better than Hilton statewide in the what’s left of the vote to overtake him, according to VoteHub. 

While Democrats would be heavily favored in any general election, Bass has had a tumultuous first term, as exemplified by failing to even make 40 percent of the primary vote.

The number of candidates in each race has also made it difficult for both parties to coalesce around favorites.

Six candidates – four Democrats and two Republicans – have gotten over four percent of the vote. 

Similarly, Raman’s campaign remains viable, making it difficult to know how much of an advantage Bass would have over Pratt in a general election. 

Pratt has largely backed away from President Trump’s endorsement but the President has spoken positively about both the former Hills star and Hilton, who has embraced the Commander-in-Chief.