{"id":2613116,"date":"2026-06-10T17:47:01","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lockstep-media-proudly-declare-ludicrous-california-elections-so-pure-they-float\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T17:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T21:51:12","slug":"lockstep-media-proudly-declare-ludicrous-california-elections-so-pure-they-float","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lockstep-media-proudly-declare-ludicrous-california-elections-so-pure-they-float\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Proudly Declare Ludicrous CA Elections So Pure They Float"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flockstep-media-proudly-declare-ludicrous-california-elections-so-pure-they-float%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2613116&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The passage argues that \u201clegacy\u201d news media avoid meaningful election \u201cdescription\u201d and instead frame events in a way that deflects discussion of how elections are run.It cites reporting about California\u2019s slow and nonstandard primary vote counting-where election-night results can drift substantially from final outcomes-and claims this pattern has enabled candidates to surge late as mail ballots are processed.<\/p>\n<p>It then focuses on a Los Angeles mayoral race,alleging that Republican candidate Spencer Pratt gained early momentum but was ultimately pushed out when challenger Nithya Raman\u2019s late-arriving mail-in ballots surged,outperforming her election-night standing. The text attributes California\u2019s outcome shifts to what it calls unusually permissive rules for counting mail ballots without clear postmarks, where handwritten dates function as substitutes. It further alleges that ballot harvesting and loose verification, potentially including payments for collecting ballots in unhoused communities, contribute to changes in the final vote totals.<\/p>\n<p>The author claims media coverage consistently parallels the same narrative: treating theoretical \u201cvote fraud\u201d as primarily a Donald Trump personality\/communication issue rather than engaging the specific practical issues alleged in California. It concludes that evidence of coordinated messaging suggests the opposite of what mainstream outlets imply-namely, that structural election-handling questions deserve investigation.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Legacy media don\u2019t <em>describe<\/em>. They exist to prevent description, corralling and deflecting. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iowahawkblog\/status\/332494589934047234?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">famous description<\/a> from Iowahawk, \u201cJournalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Four <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/primary-elections-show-power-of-trump-endorsment\/\" title=\"Primary ...s show power of Trump endorsment\">states held primary elections<\/a> on June 9, and on the morning of June 10, they were either ahead in their count or about as far along in their count of ballots as California, which held its primaries on June 2. These screenshots from live election results at the NBC News website are both from Wednesday morning at 9:30 PT:<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>NBC News<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Screenshot       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>NBC News<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Screenshot       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>California counts far more slowly than anyone else in the country, and California\u2019s results have the most remarkable tendency to <em>drift<\/em>: What the outcome looks like on election night has nothing to do with the final outcome. Famous 2010 election outcome <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2019\/07\/16\/when-kamala-harris-lost-on-election-night-but-won-three-weeks-later\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">summarized<\/a> in a single headline about the 2010 state\u2019s attorney general race: \u201cWhen Kamala Harris lost on election night, but won three weeks later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It just happened again. <\/p>\n<p>The Republican mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt made the extraordinary choice of accurately describing Los Angeles, talking clearly about the descent of the city into zones of Third World filth, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firefighterclosecalls.com\/beyond-the-brink-data-shows-la-fire-department-among-the-most-understaffed-in-america\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">failing public agencies<\/a>, and a crisis of open drug addiction and <a href=\"https:\/\/centerforhealthjournalism.org\/our-work\/reporting\/mired-overdose-crisis-macarthur-park-struggles-revive-neighborhood-council\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fatal overdoses<\/a> in the streets. Pratt\u2019s candidacy was always a long shot, and Republican activists in Los Angeles kept using the term \u201cmath problem\u201d to describe the likely ending in a place where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one. <\/p>\n<p>But Pratt seemed to have at least partially solved the math problem: Initial returns showed him solidly in second place behind Mayor Karen Bass and her record of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=eUJ1jA07BM0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">appalling failure<\/a>, seemingly earning a spot on the November ballot. If that outcome probably didn\u2019t give him a shot at being mayor, it very much did give him a high-profile platform to keep talking about the obvious decline of the city.<\/p>\n<p>And then the count kept going.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>Democrats overwhelmingly vote late and by mail \u2014 but only Nithya Raman Democrats, not Karen Bass Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>Just totally insane stuff. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8iOzWtTKP4\">pic.twitter.com\/8iOzWtTKP4<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 johnny maga (@johnnymaga) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/johnnymaga\/status\/2063794491249602584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>As the week went on, initial third-place finisher Nithya Raman radically outperformed her election night results. Late-arriving mail-in ballots trended hard in her direction, as she grew her share of the vote with each new day of counting. An unappealing candidate who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cygn.al\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cygnal-LA-Mayor-Poll-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">polling at 18 to 19 percent<\/a> in the bottom half of May suddenly started getting nearly 40 percent of the vote in late-arriving batches of mail-in ballots.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>Mail-ins arriving before Election Day:<br \/>\ud83d\udd35 Bass: 38.1%<br \/>\ud83d\udd34 Pratt: 27.9%<br \/>\ud83d\udd35 Raman: 20% <\/p>\n<p>Mail-ins arriving after Election Day:<br \/>\ud83d\udd35 Raman: 37% (+17% surge)<br \/>\ud83d\udd35 Bass: 34.9% (-3% drop)<br \/>\ud83d\udd34 Pratt: 19% (-9% drop)<\/p>\n<p>Who are we kidding here? This is fraud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EndWokeness\/status\/2063618266510098485?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 7, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Well behind on election night, and for a few days after the election, Raman suddenly surged ahead and took second place, forcing Pratt out of the November election. <\/p>\n<p>As everyone and their grandmothers haved <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DZWP-ZgBziz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noticed<\/a>, California has insane voting regulations that define a valid mail-in ballot, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/regulations\/california\/2-CCR-20991\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this one<\/a>: \u201cVote-by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-allows-late-ballots-with-no-postmark-thats-an-invitation-to-fraud\/\" title=\"CA&#039;s Mail-In ... Policy Is An Invitation To Fraud\">-mail ballot identification envelope<\/a> has no dated postmark, the postmark is illegible, and there is no date stamp for receipt from a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-problems-with-californias-month-long-vote-counting-process\/\" title=\"5 Problems With California&#039;s Month-Long ... ... Process\">bona fide private mail delivery service<\/a>, but the voter has dated the vote-by-mail ballot identification envelope or the envelope otherwise indicates that the ballot was executed on or before Election Day and the ballot was received by the elections official in accordance with Elections Code section\u00a03020.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mail-in ballots that have no postmark and that suddenly appear long after Election Day are to be counted if \u201cthe voter has dated the vote-by-mail ballot identification envelope.\u201d Whenever the thing shows up, whatever date is hand-written on the envelope is good enough.<\/p>\n<p>Allowing remotely cast ballots to slip in with handwritten dates in lieu of postmarks, California is also home to a giant population of drug addicts who live on the street, and every one of them is eligible to receive a mail-in ballot. As has been <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/06\/09\/us-news\/la-skid-row-homeless-claim-theyve-been-paid-to-vote-for-karen-bass-and-nithya-raman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">widely reported<\/a>, people living in tents on Skid Row have been remarkably open about the two-dollar payments they got for delivering ballots for leftist mayoral candidates.<\/p>\n<p>In an atmosphere of calculatedly loose ballot verification rules and easy ballot harvesting, California\u2019s supposed \u201cvote\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/chriswithans\/status\/2064418992375443469\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">keeps growing<\/a>: \u201cCalifornia\u2019s going to have over 9.4 million primary votes cast for governor in 2026. That\u2019s about 35% more than both 2018 and 2022. Those two midterm years were similar. This despite the fact that the state\u2019s lost about 1.5 to 2 million citizens since 2018, mostly but not entirely replaced by immigrants and migrants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And finally, greasy California Gov. Gavin Newsom <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/politics\/2026\/05\/california-ballot-seizure-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">signed a bill into law<\/a> on May 27, days ahead of the elections, making it illegal \u2014\u00a0in theory, and expect the new law to be challenged in court \u2014\u00a0for county voting officials to allow law enforcement officers to review ballots after an election.<\/p>\n<p>Put all of those things together, and what do you get? If you believe the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-ignore-bidens-threat-to-nuke-americans-lets-compare-that-to-donald-trump\/\" title=\"Media Ignore Biden\u2019s Threat to Nuke Americans. Let\u2019s Compare That to ...\">legacy news media<\/a>, you get an election of undeniable integrity, and only bizarre far-right conspiracy theorists would ever dare to claim otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/08\/us\/politics\/trump-election-fraud-strategy-california.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">June 8<\/a>: \u201cTrump Previews Fall Strategy With Baseless Claims of California Vote Fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NPR, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2026\/06\/09\/nx-s1-5850269\/californias-attorney-general-on-trumps-baseless-claim-of-election-fraud\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">June 9<\/a>: \u201cCalifornia\u2019s attorney general refutes Trump\u2019s baseless claim of election fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Guardian, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/jun\/09\/trump-election-california-fraud-claims\">June 9<\/a>: \u201cTrump \u2018inventing fraud\u2019 in California, experts warn as president ramps up baseless claims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wall Street Journal, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/elections\/trump-fuels-election-fraud-claims-in-california-81c5f723\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">June 8<\/a>: \u201cTrump Fuels Election-Fraud Claims in California.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NBC News, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/2026-election\/californias-slow-vote-count-trumps-unfounded-fraud-claims-midterms-rcna348978\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">June 9<\/a>: \u201cCalifornia\u2019s slow vote count and Trump\u2019s unfounded fraud claims offer preview of November\u2019s midterms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By the most remarkable coincidence, every legacy news media organization adopts exactly the same frame: Donald Trump is pretending that there\u2019s fraud in California\u2019s election. The story isn\u2019t about the state\u2019s provably loose ballot-handling rules, the not-really-disputed significance of ballot harvesting from places like Skid Row, the late-breaking surge of ballots for unpopular far-left candidates, or the growing inevitability of California\u2019s post-election new results that always favor Democrats. The story is about Donald Trump\u2019s personality. <\/p>\n<p>Are there reasons to doubt that California has fair and honest elections? No, because Orange Man Bad. <\/p>\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/feature\/rapid-onset-political-enlightenment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">important essay<\/a> that has now sadly been paywalled, the longtime journalist David Samuels described a transition in which Democrats stopped making arguments and started erecting \u201cpermission structures\u201d with media complicity that were designed to signal which views are to be considered acceptable and which views are not to be discussed: high-status and low-status things to believe. <\/p>\n<p>This is entirely what the \u201cnews\u201d is currently doing. Rather than examining the possibility that the vote in California is manipulated and not a true representation of public sentiment, legacy media are uniting around the cultural signal that this is not a topic that is to be discussed. <\/p>\n<p>Consider that lockstep messaging clear enough evidence that the opposite is probably true, and demands further examination. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at &#8220;Tell Me How This Ends,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legacy media prevent description-just covering important stories until they stop moving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":2613117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/spencer-ad-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6571,4188,50738,5894],"class_list":["post-2613116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-elections","tag-media","tag-misinformation-2","tag-politics"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/spencer-ad-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2613116"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2613120,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613116\/revisions\/2613120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2613117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2613116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2613116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2613116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}