While President Donald Trump and other Republicans rage about “rigged” vote counting in the Los Angeles mayoral race, political minds are pointing out a basic reason their accusations don’t make much sense.On Sunday, progressive city council member Nithya Raman narrowly overtook reality star and right-wing candidate-of-choice Spencer Pratt’s second-place spot in the local race, likely sending her to a November runoff against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass.Raman’s small but decisive surge in votes set off Trump, who claimed Republicans were being “cheated” in California’s “crooked” elections in a Truth Social post.He was joined by a chorus of other conservatives, many of whom said it was fishy for Raman to leapfrog Pratt so long after last Tuesday’s election, despite California’s election result delays being well-known.With more mail-in ballots to count than any other state, the Golden State’s process is further drawn out by statute, which allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive at election offices and still be counted up to seven days later.As Republicans accused Democrats of fixing the race, CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten highlighted a major flaw in their logic, and it all came down to strategy for establishment-backed candidate Bass.“This is the dumbest conspiracy theory I have ever heard because the Democratic establishment and Karen Bass wanted Spencer Pratt in the runoff,” Enten said on “CNN News Central” Monday morning.Explaining how Bass would have a “real race on her hands” if Raman is her rival while she was “crushing” Pratt in the polls, Enten’s numbers showed the mayor had an 18-point edge on the reality star while she’d actually fall four points behind the city councilwoman in that potential matchup.“She wanted to face Pratt; she wanted nothing to do with Raman,” he said. “That’s why these conspiracy theories, simply put, make no sense, people.”Enten also pulled up favorability figures, which had Raman up five compared to Bass’ 22-point under and Pratt’s 32-point crater.Though it’s still too early to officially call the race, Monday morning numbers showed Raman holding around a 3,100 lead on Pratt. California law gives election officials a full 30 days to process ballots, and so far only 83% of votes have been counted.