Newsom Defends Extremely Slow Vote Counting In California
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is defending the insanely slow pace of counting ballots from California’s primary elections on Tuesday as critics claim the process reeks of corruption.
Newsom’s office posted an “explainer” video featuring CNN correspondent Elex Michaelson defending the state’s slow count as baked into California law.
He claimed that California leaders, including Newsom, wanted to make it easier for people to cast “last-minute ballots” by mail rather than focus more on counting ballots quickly.
In making that point, Michaelson’s video appeared critical of Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas—two states that have been recipients of California residents and companies.
He said those leaders are “focused more on counting ballots quickly” than on giving residents “more time to decide” who they wanted to vote for at the last minute.
Newsom wrote in an X post featuring the video: “There is a lot of misinformation floating around about California’s election — including from the President. This explainer is worth a watch. And yes, for the record: we wish the votes were counted faster, too.”
Newsom didn’t mention any ways he, as governor, and the state Assembly, which has a Democrat supermajority, could implement fixes to speed up the vote count process.
The outgoing California governor’s video and statement were blasted online, with many social media users claiming California Dems have created a system that makes it much easier to cheat to their advantage.
“Americans should expect, at a minimum, to have elections that are free and fair, and results that are delivered promptly. But California is taking its laid-back reputation too far, failing to deliver its election results in a timely manner and creating the perception that they are neither free nor fair,” writes Jarrett Stepman for The Daily Signal on Thursday.
“Slothful election results have plagued California for years since it made wholesale changes to its election system in 2016. It has mass mail-in ballots that can be counted post-election and allows for an extremely slow pace of counting,” he continued.
“Proponents of the system say this makes their elections more ‘secure’ and accessible,” Stepman added.
While elections in California certainly are “accessible,” as the above video from a California resident demonstrated, claiming they are secure is more than a stretch, per Stepman:
As of now, the Los Angeles mayoral runoff would seem to be down to incumbent Democrat Karen Bass and the surging upstart Republican Spencer Pratt, with leftist candidate Nithya Raman taking the third spot. That would cut Raman out of the general election.
Raman cried on election night and certainly seemed convinced that she’d lost.
But since election day, new batches of mail-in votes have continued to trickle in for Raman. Even more curiously, electoral prediction markets have swung strongly in her favor.
“Why would it be a surprise that many are calling foul?” Stepman asked, noting it’s been “days” since the primary election and only Raman is surging.
“Election prediction markets should be taken with a grain of salt, but the fact that we are so far from election day and we are still so far from resolution is, frankly, shameful,” said Stepman.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Trump Admin Says It Uncovered $10 Billion Obamacare Fraud Scheme
The Trump administration says it has uncovered what it describes as a massive fraud scheme within the Affordable Care Act.
Members of Trump’s administration allege that roughly $10 billion in taxpayer money was improperly paid out between 2021 and 2024 because of weakened enrollment safeguards under former President Joe Biden.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services report, officials have already removed nearly three million fraudulent or improper Obamacare enrollments and estimate another 2.6 million questionable enrollments remain.
Administration officials say the findings are part of a broader government-wide effort to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across federal programs.
The report traces the alleged problems to changes made during the Biden administration that expanded enrollment opportunities while relaxing income verification and eligibility checks.
At the start of Biden’s presidency, approximately 10 million people were enrolled through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. By 2024, enrollment had surged to roughly 22 million.
Federal investigators now believe millions of those enrollments were improper, fraudulent, or created without the knowledge of the individuals involved.
“By our estimate, improper, phantom, and fraudulent enrollment peaked at 5.6 million people in 2025,” the report states.
“We estimate 2.6 million improper and phantom enrollments remain, including over 1 million enrollments without a Social Security number.”
According to the report, several different forms of abuse contributed to the alleged fraud.
Officials say some applicants intentionally understated their income to qualify for larger taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Others allegedly received premium assistance despite failing to meet eligibility requirements.
Investigators also identified what they describe as “phantom enrollments,” in which insurance brokers allegedly enrolled people in Obamacare plans without their knowledge to collect federal commissions.
The report argues that reduced verification requirements made those practices significantly easier to carry out.
Since taking office, the Trump administration says it has restored stricter income verification requirements, ended several special enrollment periods, increased screening for duplicate Medicaid enrollment, and launched investigations into brokers suspected of creating phantom policies.
Officials also say they have strengthened oversight of agents participating in the federal marketplace.
As a result of those efforts, nearly three million enrollments have already been removed from the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Even after those removals, approximately 19.2 million people remain enrolled.
The administration says its goal is not to reduce legitimate coverage but to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent only on individuals who actually qualify.
“Preserving the fiscal and programmatic integrity of the ACA Exchanges is key to safeguarding taxpayer-funded resources for those that truly need them,” the report states.
“The federal government paying brokers to enroll individuals without their knowledge is not.”
The report also says the administration will continue pursuing additional enforcement actions against brokers and others accused of exploiting the program.
“The Trump Administration continues to aggressively root out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption by promulgating new regulations to improve program integrity, investigating suspected improper or fraudulent enrollment, and taking action against agents and brokers committing fraud.”
The findings are likely to reignite debate over the Affordable Care Act and how aggressively eligibility rules should be enforced.
Supporters of the administration argue the report demonstrates that stricter oversight is necessary to protect taxpayers and preserve benefits for those legally entitled to receive them.
Critics of previous verification rollbacks have long warned that loosening enrollment safeguards could increase improper payments and fraud, while supporters of the Biden-era policies argued the changes made healthcare more accessible to eligible Americans, Fox News reported exclusively.
The administration says its investigations remain ongoing, with an estimated 2.6 million additional enrollments still under review as officials continue auditing the federal health insurance exchanges.
Trump has been pushing to replace Obamacare for over a decade, and this may give Republicans enough motivation to actually do something.
