Photo: Alamy | Analysis by Summer Lane
As California voters head to the polls – and the drop boxes – to cast their vote on a measure that could alter congressional districts in the Golden State, President Trump announced on Tuesday that the state’s mail-in ballot process is under review.
“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He added, “All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!”
The president is referring to two issues in California that have been widely criticized by conservatives: Proposition 50 and mandatory mail-in ballots.
First, Proposition 50 – on the ballot in California’s special election – would authorize temporary changes to congressional district maps. This is a direct response to Texas’s move to redistrict its congressional lines, which may flip several Democratic seats to Republicans in the 2026 midterms.
If the measure passes, several Republican congressmen’s seats in California would likely flip to Democrat control next year, due to the redrawing of district lines before the census in 2030.
Second, mail-in ballots in the state of California have been mandatory since Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation into law in 2021 that made vote-by-mail ballots a permanent fixture for California voters.
In other words, all California voters receive a mail-in ballot every election, whether they want it or not.
Mail-in ballots have come under fire nationwide in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, sparking allegations of irregularities and potential fraudulent activities across the country amid Covid-era chaos. The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud map, for example, features some key cases that have arisen post-2020, which include reported problems like false registrations and ballot duplication.
Under Gov. Newsom’s leadership, California also implemented a law earlier this year banning voter ID – fueling critics’ fears that this essentially eliminates yet another layer of election security for registered and legal voters in a state with at least 2.3 million illegal residents.
Voting systems like this seem to fan the flames of widespread distrust in America’s elections. Last year, for example, American trust in the election system fell even lower just before the presidential election – a sentiment no doubt sown by years of prolonged vote-counting processes and ballots cast without voter ID.
It is unclear what – if anything – the Trump administration could do to respond to California’s massive mail-in voting system and the apparent gerrymandering that’s on the ballot. President Trump may later withhold key federal funding from California in an effort to force Gov. Newsom to reassess the election processes in his state, but until then, there is a good chance that Proposition 50 will pass on Tuesday.
