Trump Warns Democrats Are Trying to Rig Special Election in CA-25

President Donald Trump warned Saturday that Democrats are trying to rig the May 12 special election in California’s 25th congressional district between Republican Mike Garcia and Democrat Christy Smith.

Democrats won the seat in 2018, but newly-elected Rep. Katie Hill resigned over a sex scandal. National politicians are weighing in, knowing that the outcome could hold lessons about the election in November.

Last month, Republicans asked California Gov. Gavin Newsom to suspend the controversial practice of “ballot harvesting,” arguing that it could aid the spread of coronavirus as party operatives collect ballots door-to-door.

Instead, Newsom declared that California would be a “vote by mail” state. The vast majority of Californians already vote by mail, but now ballots will be sent to every voter, not just those who request mail-in ballots.

Republicans complained that the change would make the November election more susceptible to cheating. (Even former President Jimmy Carter warned in 2005 that mail-in voting posed the highest risk of fraud.)

There were, however, several polling places set up for in-person voting, spread evenly throughout the district. Last week, California Democrats complained that “communities of color” were disadvantaged because L.A. County Registrar Deal Logan — a Democrat — had failed to cater for African American and Latino voters.

In response, Logan announced that a new voting center would be set up in Lancaster, as Democrats demanded:

Republicans cried foul, claiming that Democrats were panicked about the prospect of losing the seat to Garcia.

And President Trump weighed in, accusing Gov. Newsom of assisting Democrats with a “rigged election”:

Voting will continue through Tuesday, but the final result may not be known for weeks as ballots are counted.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.