'Sorry Donald': Xavier Becerra blasts Trump's criticism of California vote count

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, on Thursday, called President Donald Trump "a repeat loser" in California, claiming that his accusations of a rigged election were an attempt to "undermine confidence in our elections." "He lost California by millions of votes in the 2024 election, and now he's trying to undermine confidence in our elections because he’s a repeat loser here. Sorry Donald, the voters decide who leads California. Not you," Becerra, one of over 60 candidates running in this year's California gubernatorial primary, said on social media.

President Trump has accused the California jungle primary of being rigged due to its slow process of counting. In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote, "Watch California, everybody! Our Election process is as bad, or worse, than any Third World Country. The biggest difference is, they count their Votes much faster—They don’t wait seven days to tell you who won, rigging the Election during each and every one of them. Americans are ashamed of what is happening!" Trump, a strong opponent of the mail-in ballot system, which he claims allows Democrats to rig votes, has used his statements to push for the SAVE America Act.  

Democrats, however, claim that the President's narrative of rigged elections is his attempt to undermine the November midterms. Senator Adam Schiff said that Trump was setting a narrative to act outside the bounds of the law in the midterm elections. "A blatant attempt to cast doubt in our election results, and a phony pretext for Trump to act illegally in the midterms," he wrote on X.

Why is counting votes taking so long in California?

After votes were cast in the primary, California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber said that the delay was normal, as a majority of California's 23 million registered voters prefer mail-in ballots. "Accuracy comes before speed," Weber said in a statement. "California is the nation's largest voting state, with millions of ballots to process and count. Taking the time to do this work correctly protects voters' rights and ensures the integrity of our elections."  

According to the BBC, around 80% of California's votes were cast by mail, which takes a considerable amount of time to be meticulously sorted, validated, and counted. Becerra is running for Governor of the state against Republican Steve Hilton and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer. Unlike other states, California's gubernatorial primary sees all candidates running on a single ballot, allowing two people of the same party to be selected for the general elections.