Analysis: California, and the dangerous sudden resurgence of GOP voter fraud fever | CNN Politics

Around noon on Sunday, Fox Business Network’s Charles Gasparino declared on X, “I hate the ‘stolen election’ stuff from the president …” Just two hours later, though, Gasparino himself was entertaining the idea that an election is being stolen. After former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger noted that President Donald Trump is claiming last week’s election in California is “rigged,” Gasparino responded: “Maybe it is.” There is zero evidence that there is anything fraudulent about the election results in California. As CNN’s Elex Michaelson has explained, the state’s ballot-counting process takes a long time because of how its elections are run, and late-counted mail ballots have typically favored Democrats in large part because Trump has turned Republicans against voting by mail. But through a combination of disinterest with those details, internet silos and raw politics, theories that Democrats are stealing the California governor’s race and the Los Angeles mayoral race have caught on like wildfire on social media. It has even extended to Republicans who previously kept such voter-fraud claims at arm’s length. After five years of voter fraud fever on the right