California Secretary of State Alex Padilla is furious at allegations of voter fraud in the Golden State by President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump made the claim on Sunday afternoon, as a follow-up to his claim that he would have won the popular vote if not for the “millions” who had voted illegally.
Padilla, who was elected in 2014, tweeted angrily about what he called Trump’s “irresponsible attempt to undermine confidence in our elections.” He added: “It appears that Mr. Trump is troubled by the fact that a growing majority of Americans did not vote for him. His unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in California and elsewhere are absurd. His reckless tweets are inappropriate and unbecoming of a President-elect.”
It is not exactly clear what Trump was referring to, but there were significant reports about problems with voting in California prior to Election Day.
One California man found nearly 100 unused 2016 ballots outside his home. And the watchdog group True the Vote complained that in early voting, poll workers in Los Angeles County were allowing people to vote even if they could not find their names on voter rolls. Voters were being allowed to search the rolls themselves to find their own names, a practice that would have allowed them to claim to be anyone listed. California has no photo ID requirement for voting.
Earlier in the year, a local news station found hundreds of dead people in California still voting — or, rather, having votes cast on their ballots. In addition, there were many illegal aliens involved in the process of voter registration — openly, and unapologetically, usually as part of the Hillary Clinton campaign.
In addition, the Pew Center on the States issued a report earlier this year, stating in part:
- More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters.
- Approximately 2.75 million people have registrations in more than one state.
It is unclear whether any of those people voted illegally, or had votes illegally cast in their name.
It is also unknown whether illegal aliens voted in this election — and Padilla would not have had much time to find out, since California is still counting votes. The state has one of the least efficient voting systems in the nation, despite the resident expertise of Silicon Valley theoretically at its disposal.
There were, however, reports of small-scale voter fraud in Virginia and other states, while gubernatorial candidate Chris Sununu accused Democrats of using same-day registration to commit voter fraud in New Hampshire: “There’s no doubt there’s election fraud here,” he told the Howie Carr Show. (Sununu went on to win his race, while Trump narrowly lost the state.)
Padilla has a history of inflammatory statements against the incoming Trump administration. He issued a hysterical — and defamatory — response to Trump’s appointment of Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon to the position of Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor:
With the appointment of Steve Bannon as “chief strategist” Mr. Trump is effectively giving white supremacists and anti-Semites a seat at the table. While the Trump campaign ran on a platform that emphasized immigrant bashing and an open flirtation with the Alt-right, Bannon will likely seek to make these policies a reality. The appointments of Bannon and Kris Kobach are direct threats to American liberty, multiculturalism and equal opportunity, as well as in direct conflict with Mr. Trump’s assertions that he wants to bring Americans together.
Padilla had a similarly inflammatory response to the selection of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as Attorney General.
Bannon is currently on leave from Breitbart News.
This post has been updated to include the Pew study.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.