President Donald Trump made a series of false claims about California elections in the days before the state’s Tuesday primaries. The comments came up during a Fox News interview that aired Saturday, where he made several assertions about how the state runs its voting.
The President claimed, “Their elections are a fraud; their mail-in votes are a fraud.” He also said, “You know, they don’t have voting booths. Everything’s by mail.” These statements are not backed by facts. While California does send mail-in ballots to all active registered voters, it is wrong to suggest that in-person voting is not available.
According to CNN, residents can choose to ignore their mail-in ballot and go to a polling place to vote instead. Official sources, including the state’s elections office and individual counties, explain how this works for the public. These resources lay out the options available to every registered voter.
State and county election offices confirm voters can choose how to cast their ballot
The office of California’s elections chief states on its website, “Any registered voter in California can decide whether to vote at a polling place or vote by mail.” Individual counties, such as Santa Clara County, also confirm this policy.
They note that even though every voter gets a ballot by mail under the Voter’s Choice Act, they still have the option to use a vote center. If a voter chooses to go in person, their mail ballot becomes void, and the system makes sure only one ballot is counted per person. Data from the 2024 general election shows about 3.1 million ballots were cast at in-person locations, which is roughly 19% of all ballots cast in the state.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta responded to the President’s claims on X. He wrote, “President Trump, once again, is lying.” Bonta pointed out that the state offers in-person voting options and added, “Where, yes, there are voting booths. Lots of them.” The President has clashed with other officials before, including his response to a judge’s ruling on the Kennedy Center.
The President also repeated a claim he has made several times before about international voting standards. He stated, “No other country in the world is doing mail-in voting anymore because it’s a fraud.” However, according to International Idea, many countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Switzerland, allow some form of mail-in voting.
Experts say that while fraud rates for mail-in ballots are slightly higher than for in-person voting, the evidence shows that fraud rates in federal elections remain very low. Additional comments the President made on May 20 included more incorrect information about California. He claimed, “If we had Jesus Christ come down and count the votes, I would have won California.”
This ignores the state’s actual election results. California is a Democratic-dominated state where the President has lost by large margins in his three races, specifically by 30 percentage points in 2016, 29 points in 2020, and 20 points in 2024. On the logistics of the state’s ballots, the President stated, “They send out 38 million votes. Nobody knows where they’re going.” This is also incorrect.
As of May 18, 2026, California had about 23.2 million registered voters. There is no evidence to support the idea that 15 million extra ballots were sent out, nor is there any truth to the claim that election offices do not know where ballots are being sent. Trump’s actions have drawn responses from political opponents, including the Biden family’s fears about being targeted.
Published: Jun 2, 2026 04:45 pm