Votes in the Los Angeles mayoral primary on June 2 are still being counted, but some social media users — and President Donald Trump — are already contesting the potential outcome and suggesting it’s fraudulent.
Conservative influencer Rogan O’Handley, known as @DC_Draino on X, in a June 7 post said: “Nithya Raman already gave a concession speech. Think about that. Not even she believed it was possible to make the top 2. But greedy machine Dems are still pumping her fake votes to get Spencer out of the top 2. Insane levels of fraud.”
The latest election results update on June 7 shows that incumbent mayor Karen Bass is leading, followed by city councilwoman Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV personality. Raman moved to second place in the latest update after an early vote count June 2 showed her out of the running. The top two in the race will advance to a Nov. 3 runoff.
Raman spoke on election night before the release of any initial results. C-SPAN titled her speech a “concession speech,” but at no point during her remarks did she concede. There are also no concession speeches or messages in her official social media campaign accounts.
Raman on election night thanked the city, her campaign and family, and spoke about campaign challenges and victories.
“Tonight may not give us a final answer on this race. Many thousands of votes will be counted in the days ahead. We may not get an answer we like. But regardless of what happens next, nobody can take away what all of us have built together,” Raman said.
She cried as she thanked her 10-year-old twins for their patience and said her campaign was intended to build a better city worthy of every child. She didn’t give the impression she was crying because she lost the race or because she was leaving it.
On June 8, Trump shared on Truth Social an X post from U.S. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., saying California elections aren’t fair because Raman was projected as one of the top two primary winners.
“No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!” Trump wrote.
During a June 7 interview on NBC News “Meet the Press,” Trump also said the California primary elections were fraudulent.
“The (2020) election was rigged. It was a dirty election. And it’s happening again right now in California,” Trump said. “It’s four days and they aren’t even close to coming up with the — do you know why they’re doing that? Because they’re cheating on the election.”
The 2020 presidential election wasn’t rigged. There’s also no evidence that the California primary elections are rigged.
In the interview, Trump referred to how long it takes California to count the ballots and the changing election results. But this isn’t unusual.
After election night, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber reminded voters in a June 4 memo that although voting ended June 2, the counting process continues for up to 30 days after the election, in accordance with state law.
Weber said election results will change throughout the counting period as county election officials process votes by mail, provisional ballots and other ballots. This is normal as some mail in ballots are counted even if they were received seven days after the election, but are postmarked on election day. Last year, during a statewide special election, more than 80% of Californians voted by mail.
County elections officials must report their final results to the secretary of state by July 3; the election results will be certified by July 10.
Our ruling
Social media users said Raman had conceded the Los Angeles mayoral race as of June 7.
C-SPAN titled a June 2 speech by Raman a “concession speech,” but at no point during her remarks did she concede. Raman said that on that night her campaign might not get the results it wants, but she also said votes were still being counted.
Raman is still in the mayoral race as one of the possible top two contenders for the November runoff, and vote counts days past election day are the norm in California because of state laws.
We rate this claim False.
PolitiFact Senior Digital Research Analyst Jeff Cercone contributed to this report.
