By Daniel Dale, NCS
(NCS) — President Donald Trump has repeated falsehoods about voting in California in an interview on Fox News.
“Their elections are a fraud; their mail-in votes are a fraud,” Trump mentioned, including later within the interview, “You know, they don’t have voting booths. Everything’s by mail.”
NCS has identified when Trump has made such claims previously that none of it was true. Though all energetic registered voters in California are despatched a mail-in poll, they’ve the choice to disregard that poll and vote in particular person as a substitute.
“Any registered voter in California can decide whether to vote at a polling place or vote by mail,” the workplace of California’s elections chief says on its web site.
Individual California counties additionally clarify on their web sites that each one voters can forged ballots in particular person. For instance, Santa Clara County says:
“Under the Voter’s Choice Act, each voter will routinely be despatched a Vote by Mail poll; nevertheless, you aren’t required to make use of it. Every voter additionally has the choice to go to a vote heart and vote in particular person as a substitute.
“When you vote in person, your mail ballot will automatically be void. You may either surrender your unused ballot at the vote center or you may destroy and dispose of it yourself. Only one ballot will be accepted and counted per voter per election.”
About 3.1 million ballots had been forged at in-particular person voting places in California within the 2024 normal election, representing about 19% of the entire ballots forged within the state.
“President Trump, once again, is lying,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, wrote on the web in response to Trump’s false declare on Fox. Bonta famous that Californians’ choices for casting a poll embody voting in-particular person at vote facilities — “Where, yes, there are voting booths. Lots of them.”
A repeat lie about mail-in voting
As he has on quite a few earlier events, Trump mentioned within the Fox News interview, “No other country in the world is doing mail-in voting anymore because it’s a fraud.” Both components of that declare are flawed.
In reality, dozens of nations — together with Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Switzerland — permit some or all voters to vote by mail, although the specifics of their insurance policies range. And there’s no foundation for categorically declaring mail-in voting “a fraud”; fraud charges in federal elections are tiny even with mail-in ballots.
Trump’s extra latest lies about California’s elections
Trump informed different lies about California elections in feedback to reporters on May 20.
In maybe his wildest declaration on the topic, he mentioned, “If we had Jesus Christ come down and count the votes, I would have won California.” California is a Democratic-dominated state during which Trump has misplaced by huge margins in all three of his races — by 30 share factors in 2016 (greater than 4 million votes), 29 factors in 2020 (greater than 5 million votes), and 20 factors in 2024 (greater than 3 million votes).
Immediately after that “Jesus Christ” declare, Trump mentioned of California, “They send out 38 million votes. Nobody knows where they’re going.” Both of those claims are incorrect. California had about 22.6 million voters registered as of about two weeks previous to the final presidential election and about 23.2 million voters registered as of May 18, 2026; there isn’t any foundation for any suggestion that some 15 million extra ballots had been distributed in any election, nor that elections workplaces don’t know the place they’re being despatched.
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.