A Los Angeles-based Justice Department official late Friday debunked a baseless claim of a discrepancy in the vote count of the city’s mayoral race that has circulated on social media.
The claim, which has been pushed by several right-wing figures on X, including billionaire Elon Musk, alleges a vote-count update on election night showed that Republican candidate Spencer Pratt received zero new votes. The push for clarity comes as President Donald Trump has used the prolonged vote count in California to sow doubt about the integrity of the state’s elections, accusing local officials of “cheating” in a heated exchange with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
On Friday, however, First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli — a Trump appointee who leads the Los Angeles-based US attorney’s office — addressed the conspiracy theory.
“There was a claim circulating on social media about an election night ballot update at the Los Angeles Registrar of Voters where one candidate received zero votes,” Essayli wrote. “We reviewed official county records. The claim is false. Each candidate received votes in every update.”
Pratt, a former reality TV star, ran against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who are both Democrats, in Tuesday night’s nonpartisan primary election. CNN has projected that Bass will advance to the November general election but has yet to call whether she will face off against Pratt or Raman as votes continue to be counted.
