Democrat California Rep. Ro Khanna claimed an infuriated Spencer Pratt-supporting “close friend” has lost so much trust in the state’s chaotic vote-counting process that he unregistered to vote in protest.
“He is convinced Spencer Pratt was robbed of the election,” Khanna wrote on X Tuesday, after the former reality TV star lost the second spot in Los Angeles mayoral primary to Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman, fueling outrage among his supporters and allegations of voting shenanigans.
Khanna explained that Election Day votes skew more Democratic, meaning it can appear that conservative candidates are leading in initial vote counts before those leads are erased.
Pratt was running in second place ahead of Raman before the lefty councilwoman overtook him in vote counts Sunday.
Khanna acknowledged that California’s agonizing vote counts, which can take days or even weeks in some race, is “eroding trust and spawning conspiracy theories.”
“[W]e need to figure out in California how we can get the vote counted faster and results tabulated so it does not drag on,” he wrote. “We should make the investments in operational improvements and resources in the wealthiest state in the nation.
“It is worth spending the resources to get the vast majority of the vote counted within 48 hours,” Khanna added.
California vote counts are slow largely due to laws seeking to expand voter access. The state allows mail-in ballots received after Election Day to be counted, so long as they are postmarked by that date.
Khanna’s comments sparked a back-and-forth online with Paul Mitchell, a California voting and redistricting expert.
Mitchell said that more staffing could speed up vote counting, but also argued against changing policy simply to appease conspiracy theorists.
“There is the state law that ballots to be accepted when they are postmarked on time, mailed on Election Day or, commonly, mailed the week before but USPS delays cause them to be late,” Mitchell argued.
The Supreme Court is set to decide on a case involving mail-in voting that could set limits on California’s current vote count policies, he noted.
“So, we can work with counties and maybe help fund more election workers within reason, but I think we can’t let conspiracy theorists or the loudest disingenuous actors online guide our policy choices,” Mitchell said.
