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California election limbo fueled by 4 pressure points dragging out vote count, expert says
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California’s still-unsettled election results are the consequence of the state’s vote-by-mail system, according to election law expert Hans von Spakovsky, who said the process can keep ballots moving through verification and counting for days and even weeks after Election Day.
The Golden State is continuing to count ballots cast in its June 2 primary elections, a process that has extended beyond Election Day due to the state’s election laws, administrative procedures, and vote-counting policies, said von Spakovsky. The delay is not the result of an isolated incident or unexpected complication but stems from the structure of its electoral system before final results can be certified.
«There are four reasons why California takes so long,» von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital on Friday. «First of all, it’s almost entirely a mail election now.»
The Los Angeles mayoral race has captured the nation’s attention as Republican-aligned candidate Spencer Pratt awaits a tally determining if he or Democrat-aligned Nithya Raman will advance to the runoff election in November against incumbent Democrat Karen Bass. While former Health and Human Services secretary under the Biden administration, Xavier Becerra, Republican Steve Hilton and Democrat Tom Steyer are still duking it out for the top two spots in the state’s jungle primary process ahead of the general election in November.
LA TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER DEFENDS CALIFORNIA’S SLOW VOTING PROCESS AS ‘ELECTION INTEGRITY’ IN ACTION
A ballot box sits outside Contra Costa County’s elections office in Martinez, Calif., on May 27, 2026. June 2 is the last day to vote in person or return a ballot before California’s statewide primary election. (Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
Von Spakovsky identified what he said are the four causes for the delay in final tallies: mass mail voting, a seven-day post-Election Day ballot receipt window, a 22-day cure period for signature issues, and high volumes of provisional ballots that must be individually investigated.
Of the four causes of the delay, von Spakovsky said California’s mail-ballot rules cause the greatest concern because it dramatically slows the counting process. With the vast majority of ballots cast by mail, election officials must spend additional time verifying and processing those ballots before they can be counted, extending the timeline for final results.
«You can go vote in person, but like in the 2024 election, out of 16 million votes that were cast in the presidential election, 13 million were by mail. It takes much longer to process a mail-in ballot than a ballot that’s cast at a polling place,» he said.
Mail-in ballots allow voters to cast their ballots from home, avoid long lines and grew in popularity during the pandemic.
Ballot drops are still rolling in and once they do, counties then have additional time to process, verify and tabulate those ballots, with counting expected to continue through June 15.
CALIFORNIA REPUBLICANS LAUNCH VOTER ID BALLOT PUSH, NEED 875K SIGNATURES BY DEADLINE
Vote by mail ballots are inspected at the Los Angeles County Ballot Processing Center in City of Industry, Calif., on Nov. 4, 2025. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Von Spakovsky pointed to postmarks on ballots as a key vulnerability in counting ballots.
«California law says, ‘We’ll count absentee ballots or mail-in ballots received up to seven days after Election Day if they’re postmarked by Election Day. But if the postmark’s missing, or it’s blurry, and we can’t read it, we will just go by whatever date the voter wrote inside the envelope,’» he said.
He said the state’s election rules are too permissive, pointing to policies such as not requiring voter ID, automatic voter registration, and lengthy post-election ballot processing periods, which he argued invite fraud or irregularities.
California is one of eight states, along with Washington, D.C., that automatically sends mail ballots in to all active registered voters in their universal vote-by-mail policy.
President Donald Trump singled out the state’s election process this week, announcing that U.S. attorneys are looking into Los Angeles as the mayoral race remains pending.
«Without commenting on any specific investigation, my office has multiple election fraud investigations underway in coordination with @FBILosAngeles,» First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli wrote on X Thursday. «We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent.»
«The state has stonewalled every effort to verify that only eligible U.S. citizens are registered to vote. This case is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal. My office will not look the other way. We will investigate and prosecute. Every legal vote deserves to be counted. Every illegal vote cancels one out,» he added.
A sign points to a vote center during the in-person early voting period for California’s Proposition 50 special election in West Hollywood, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2025. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Democrats have played down concern over the process to count the ballots, including Becerra saying those who bemoan the amount of time it takes are working «to undermine confidence in our elections.»
«We count every ballot. Thank you for your patience as we give democracy time to work,» Steyer wrote on X, citing Trump’s recent comments on the election.
HILTON SAYS SPENCER PRATT CAMPAIGN REFLECTS GROWING REVOLT AGAINST CALIFORNIA’S ‘ONE-PARTY RULE’
Viral rumors have spread across social media since June 2, including claims that Pratt did not receive a single vote out of about 24,000 Los Angeles ballots that rolled in.
«That’s a lie,» the California Attorney General’s Office told Fox News Digital, pointing to an X statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office debunking the claims as «disinformation» and a «lie.»
FILE – Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a news conference in Oakland, Calif (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
The California governor sent a letter to state election officials in May calling on them to swiftly tabulate the upcoming elections, while focusing the letter on building and maintaining confidence in voting.
«We must continue building confidence in our elections and ensure not only that every vote is counted, but that every vote is trusted. We must acknowledge that the longer the voting count takes, the more mis- and disinformation spreads. That means we must do all that we can to tabulate votes quickly and accurately. Time is of the essence in preventing election lies from taking hold,» he wrote.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for additional comment.
investigations, california, voting, elections state and local, voter fraud concerns
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US, Shield of the Americas condemn ‘ongoing efforts’ to overthrow Bolivia’s elected president amid unrest
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The United States, along with the other countries that make up the Shield of the Americas, condemned the «ongoing efforts» in Bolivia to «overthrow the legitimately and overwhelmingly elected» government of President Rodrigo Paz on Friday.
«The member countries of Shield of the Americas denounce ongoing efforts to overthrow the legitimately and overwhelmingly elected government of President Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia,» the statement read. «We stand with Paz’s democratic government as it fights back against attempts to drag Bolivia backwards through cynical efforts to prevent the delivery of food, medicine and other vital supplies to the Bolivian people through fake road blockades.»
The statement added that «Mob rule cannot replace the decision that a majority of Bolivians made at the ballot box to turn the page on two decades of corrupt governments.»
It also said that anyone who is funding protests with «dirty money» from drug trafficking and transnational crime «should be held accountable. Those who have legitimate grievances should take advantage of the government’s willingness to dialogue, and denounce those who would abuse their causes to regain power.»
PETE HEGSETH WARNS NARCO-TERRORISTS AS U.S. BACKS BOLIVIA’S GOVERNMENT AMID COUP WARNINGS
Demonstrators march in La Paz, Bolivia, on May 20, 2026, rallying against road blockades and pressure tactics used by protesters demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz amid the country’s economic and fuel crisis. (Claudia Morales/Reuters)
The State Department made the joint statement along with Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The statement comes as Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, has been rocked by weeks of social unrest as mass protests have blocked streets in major cities amid economic inflation and rising fuel prices.
Bolivian Defense Minister Marcelo Salinas resigned Tuesday.
Upon taking office, Paz supported a land reform bill to boost agribusiness that Indigenous farmers said put them at risk of eviction. He further scrapped fuel subsidies, sending prices surging by nearly 90%. Motorists complained that the gasoline was contaminated and ruined their cars.
PETE HEGSETH MAKES HOMELAND SECURITY TOP MISSION IN FIRST INTERVIEW AS SECRETARY OF WAR
The Trump administration has said drug traffickers are responsible for inciting the mass unrest.
Meanwhile, former President Evo Morales of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, the country’s first Indigenous president who ruled for an unprecedented 14 years, is calling for early elections. «Paz only has two paths left: a suicidal decision like militarization or … an election in the next 90 days,» he wrote on X.
Police officers fired tear gas at community members who seized the Humberto Suarez oil facility during protests calling for President Rodrigo Paz’s resignation in Santa Rosa del Sara, Bolivia, on June 3, 2026. The protests have caused fuel and food shortages. (Ipa Ibanez/Reuters)
For almost two years now, Morales has been hiding out in Bolivia’s central coca-growing Chapare region, evading an arrest warrant on human trafficking charges relating to allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old girl. He rejects the allegations as politically motivated.
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Bolivia’s President Rodrigo Paz delivers a speech in La Paz on June 3, 2026, after naming Ernesto Justiniano as defense minister following the resignation of Marcelo Salinas amid protests. (Claudia Morales/Reuters)
On Thursday, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on X, that the War Department and the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C), a recently established multinational military and political alliance, reject all attempts to overthrow the government of Rodrigo Paz Pereira six months into his term.
Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales greets a member of the country’s anti-drugs forces in Santa Cruz province near the Paraguay border on March 28, 2009. T (Stringer/Reuters)
«The United States is watching. Bolivia must not allow itself to fall prey to the old status quo of narco-terrorist dominance in the region,» Hegseth wrote. «We will continue to support our A3C partners like Bolivia to ensure that narco-terrorists are deterred from profiting on death and destruction in our hemisphere.»
Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
pete hegseth, latin america, americas, south america, state department
INTERNACIONAL
Vladimir Putin rechaza la oferta de Volodimir Zelenski de reunirse cara a cara para negociar una salida a la guerra en Ucrania
INTERNACIONAL
Patrimonio de los diputados de El Salvador queda completo tras una última declaración publicada por Hacienda
La divulgación de los activos y pasivos de todos los diputados propietarios de la Asamblea Legislativa de El Salvador quedó completada tras la publicación de la declaración patrimonial de Reinaldo Alcides Carballo Carballo, representante del Partido Demócrata Cristiano (PDC).
Con este registro, el sitio web del Ministerio de Hacienda proporciona información patrimonial de los 60 legisladores elegidos para el periodo 2024-2027, un hecho que marca el cierre de una etapa de transparencia institucional impulsada por exigencias internacionales y normativas anticorrupción.
El Ministerio de Hacienda habilitó el portal de activos y pasivos a finales de mayo, desde entonces se podían consultar las declaraciones de 58 de los 60 diputados propietarios. La incorporación de los datos de Carballo permite completar el listado de este órgano del Estado.
De acuerdo con los datos oficiales, el diputado Carballo, quien también ocupa el cargo de secretario general del PDC, declaró activos por $5,612,675.96 y pasivos por $1,470,414.36, lo que sitúa su patrimonio neto en $4,142,261.60, el más elevado entre los actuales miembros de la Asamblea Legislativa.
El funcionario lidera así la tabla patrimonial, por encima de figuras como Claudia Carolina Toledo de Morán, con un patrimonio de $1,887,000.00, y Reynaldo Antonio López Cardoza, con $1,606,880.07. Estos datos pueden consultarse abiertamente en el sitio del Ministerio de Hacienda, digitando el nombre completo del legislador y la institución correspondiente.
Otros diputados como el presidente de la Asamblea Legislativa, Ernesto Alfredo Castro Aldana, mantiene activos por $321,580 y pasivos por $89,205; es decir, tiene un patrimonio de $232,375. Mientras que la vicepresidenta legislativa, Suecy Beverley Callejas Estrada, tiene activos por $223,278 y pasivos por $172,813, reportando así un patrimonio de $50,465.
El listado completo, disponible en el portal gubernamental, muestra que la suma de activos de los 60 diputados asciende a $23,843,387, mientras que los pasivos llegan a $8,294,853. El patrimonio neto conjunto de la legislatura se ubica en $15,548,533.74.
El proceso de publicación de estos datos responde a compromisos internacionales y a la reciente legislación nacional. El Gobierno de El Salvador asumió, ante el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI), la obligación de robustecer la transparencia fiscal y el control del enriquecimiento ilícito. El acuerdo de Servicio Ampliado con el FMI, por $1,400 millones, incluyó entre sus condiciones la implementación de mecanismos como la divulgación patrimonial y la rendición de cuentas de los funcionarios.
En ese contexto, la Ley Especial de Combate a la Corrupción y Extinción de Dominio, aprobada por mayoría oficialista, estableció la obligación para todos los funcionarios de presentar declaraciones de activos y pasivos.
La normativa indica que el incumplimiento de este deber conlleva la destitución inmediata del cargo, además de posibles sanciones administrativas y penales para quienes falseen u oculten información. De acuerdo con el texto legal, la Superintendencia de Integridad y Ética Gubernamental es la entidad responsable de fiscalizar el cumplimiento y de trasladar eventuales irregularidades al Ministerio Público.
El avance en la transparencia patrimonial tiene antecedentes complejos. En 2020, el Instituto de Acceso a la Información Pública (IAIP) determinó que las adendas patrimoniales presentadas por los funcionarios serían consideradas confidenciales. A partir de esa decisión, la información sobre variaciones en el patrimonio de los funcionarios públicos quedó reservada.
Actualmente, la consulta de la información patrimonial de los diputados es directa: los interesados deben ingresar el nombre completo del legislador y la institución “Asamblea Legislativa” en el sistema digital oficial. Esta apertura permite conocer los bienes reportados de cada diputado propietario, aunque las adendas y justificaciones de incrementos patrimoniales permanecen fuera del alcance público.
La publicación de estos datos representa un paso relevante en materia de transparencia y control del patrimonio público en El Salvador. Con esta información patrimonial se consolida el cumplimiento de los compromisos asumidos ante el FMI por las autoridades salvadoreñas.
corresponsal:Desde San Salvador, El Salvador
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