A federal prosecutor was on scene at the Los Angeles County ballot processing facility Friday, one day after President Trump asserted the election was “under investigation” by the US Attorney’s Office, The California Post can exclusively report.
U.S. Attorney Robert Renner toured the county’s ballot processing facility amid growing questions about the speed of ballot processing.
Bill Essayli, LA’s top federal prosecutor, announced Friday morning that his office is pursuing several election fraud investigations in coordination with the FBI and Department of Justice as questions swirl over California’s sluggish vote count.
Renner’s review follows exclusive reporting by The Post, which visited the county’s 144,000-square-foot ballot processing facility Thursday and found large sections of the operation sitting unused despite the substantial backlog.
During the visit, The Post observed rows of empty chairs, vacant ballot-processing stations and expansive areas of the facility with little visible activity while hundreds of thousands of ballots remained uncounted.
When The Post asked an election center staff member about the rows of unused workstations despite the substantial backlog, the employee insisted reporters should not be “fooled by what you see.”
When pressed to elaborate, however, the staff member offered no further explanation and walked away.
The county announced Thursday night that it had processed an additional 74,486 ballots since the previous update, bringing the total number counted to 1,470,473 ballots.
Despite the progress, officials estimate 638,694 ballots remain outstanding, including approximately 627,000 vote-by-mail ballots, 9,888 conditional voter registration ballots and 1,806 provisional ballots.
The federal visit also comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s accusations that California Democrats were attempting to “steal” both the California gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral primary elections.
In a series of social media posts Wednesday night, Trump alleged election officials were improperly handling mail-in ballots and intentionally delaying vote counting, though he offered no evidence to support the claims. Trump also asserted that the election was “under investigation” by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
The outstanding ballots at the county facility could prove pivotal in several closely watched races.
In the governor’s race, former Fox News host Steve Hilton led former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra by roughly 67,500 votes as of Thursday night. Hilton received 27.2% of the vote, or 1,511,792 votes, compared with Becerra’s 26%, or 1,444,257 votes. Billionaire Tom Steyer remained in third place with 20.2%, or 1,122,789 votes.
The Los Angeles mayoral contest also remains unsettled.
Mayor Karen Bass currently leads the field, while media personality Spencer Pratt is running second and attempting to secure a place in a potential November runoff. With hundreds of thousands of ballots still awaiting processing, election officials and candidates continue to watch the count closely.
Los Angeles County election officials have defended the lengthy counting process, pointing to California’s vote-by-mail system, signature verification requirements and state laws that allow ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive days later and still be counted.
The Post reached out to Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.
