Claim: Former President Donald Trump, speaking on Newsmax Tuesday night, claimed that the California recall against Gov. Gavin Newsom is likely "rigged," suggesting that the widespread use of mail ballots will ensure a victory for the Democrat.
"It's probably rigged. The ballots... are mail-in ballots... I guess you even have a case where you can make your own ballot. When that happens, nobody's gonna win except these Democrats. The one thing they are good at is rigging elections, so I predict it's a rigged election," Trump said.
Ruling: False
Details: Trump's claim that the widespread use of mail ballots in the California recall is evidence of a "rigged" election mirrors the baseless claims he made in 2020, when it became clear he had lost his reelection bid.
California has long used mail ballots requested by voters in its elections. In 2020, the state expanded mail voting to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, sending ballots automatically to registered voters. Following the presidential election, California lawmakers voted to continue the practice for all elections in 2021, citing ongoing COVID-19 concerns.
State lawmakers in early 2020 also expanded Remote Accessible Vote-by-Mail to all California voters. The RAVBM method has been in use since 2017, and was originally designed with military and overseas voters and those with disabilities in mind.
The method allows voters to use their personal computers to print a "paper cast vote record" at home and return it via mail. Voters must request and apply to use this method, and only after verification by county elections officials is the vote record transferred to a real ballot for processing and tabulation.
Vote-by-mail ballots are printed on specific paper types using watermarks that are unique to each election and all ballot printers must be certified by the state, according to the Secretary of State's office. Every mail ballot return envelop has a unique barcode tied to a specific voter, and elections officials check every ballot to ensure it belongs to an active, registered voter and that the voter didn't already vote elsewhere.
Signatures are verified on each ballot, and if a signature is missing or doesn't match what's on file, elections officials contact the voter. If the voter doesn't provided an updated signature, the ballot won't count.
Regardless of voting methods, California has long elected Democrats to statewide office. It elected a Republican governor in 2003, as voters recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and replaced him with body-building actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was re-elected to a second term in 2006, the last time the state opted for a Republican chief executive.
Newsom won the 2018 election by nearly 24 percentage points, crushing his Trump-endorsed competitor, businessman John Cox. It was the biggest margin of victory in a California gubernatorial race since 1950. Cox is running again this time.
Trump by contrast, lost California in 2016 by 30.1 points. In 2020, he lost by 28.2 points.
In the current election, nearly half of the state's 22 million voters, 46.5%, are registered Democrats. Republicans make up 24.1% of all voters. The rest either decline to state a party preference, 23.3%, or are members of another party, 6.2%.
The latest survey from the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California showed 58% of voters backing "no" on the recall, compared to 39% who support his removal.
Voters have until Sept. 14 to return their mail ballots. Currently, Democrats are making up more than half of all ballot returns, and outpacing other parties in their rate of return, according to ballot tracking from Political Data Inc.
So far, 33% of Democrats have returned their recall ballots, compared to 30% of Republicans and 22% of independents.
Election officials have up to a week after the election to accept and count ballots, which means it could be several days before the results of the election are clear.
