1. GOP in-person voters drive an election-night “red mirage.”
2. Democratic mail ballots produce a “blue shift.”
3. MAGA treats the late swing as proof of fraud.<\/blockquote>\nTwo narratives are emerging from this. One is that the predictable “blue shift” is proof of fraud. The other narrative doesn’t go that far, but it’s dangerous, too<\/a>.\nHouse Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declared Monday that the results of the California primary election \u201cstinks to high heaven,\u201d but stopped short of backing Trump\u2019s claim that Democrats are cheating or have rigged the results.
\u201cThey are counting votes weeks after the election,\u201d Johnson said at the Capitol. \u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s rigged. I\u2019m saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that.\u201d<\/blockquote>\nJohnson actually said a lot more than that to CNN’s Manu Raju. He said<\/a>, \nLet’s remove the appearance of impropriety. Let’s have votes — what a concept — the day of the election. That’s what many states are able to do. I think California is playing around with this.<\/blockquote>\nAnd:\nRAJU: But what evidence is there to prove the California election is rigged?\n\nMIKE JOHNSON: Look, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it's impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively that something is wrong here.
[image or embed]<\/a><\/p>— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com<\/a>) June 8, 2026 at 3:56 PM<\/a><\/blockquote>\n
\nAnd a Republican strategist, Brian Darling, said this<\/a> to The Hill<\/i>:\n\u201cIf we have a bunch of elections where votes are being counted a week and two weeks after the election\u2019s closed out, I think that\u2019s going to be a problem,\u201d he said.
\u201cIf you have a repeat of what\u2019s happening in the LA mayor\u2019s race, if that happens nationwide, it\u2019s going to feed into the idea that our elections are broken,\u201d he added.<\/blockquote>\nThe two Republican messages are that the election is rigged and, for those who think that’s a bit extreme, that the election may not be rigged<\/i> exactly, but the slow count is a sign that elections in Democratic strongholds are being mismanaged, at great peril to our democracy.
That’s bullshit, and Democrats should say it’s bullshit. They should go on offense and defend the process.
Democrats have an advantage: The argument that’s being made the loudest, the fraud argument, is being advanced by Trump, whom 60% of the country recognizes as a whiny toddler who thinks anything that doesn’t go his way is rigged. Late-night comics understand this, as they demonstrated in their response<\/a> to Trump’s walkout during an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, after Welker challenged Trump’s claims of fraud in California this year and in the presidential election six years ago:\n\u201cNow, you could view this as the hissy-fit of an incredibly fragile man-baby, whose paper-thin skin can\u2019t handle venturing out of the sycophantic embrace of his tongue-bathing acolytes. Or, uh, actually, I don\u2019t know how else you can view it. It really is just that.\u201d \u2014 JON STEWART
\u201cPresident Trump stormed out of an interview over the weekend with \u2018Meet the Press\u2019 after host Kristen Welker disputed his claim that the 2020 election was rigged. Though I\u2019m not sure you can call this a storm. That\u2019s more like a slow-moving fog bank.\u201d \u2014 SETH MEYERS<\/blockquote>\nDemocrats, your main antagonist is an object of national ridicule! Use that!
Defend the process. Say it’s slow because it’s careful. Say that if Trump thinks there’s fraud, he needs to put up or shut up — Democrats should use those exact words. Demand evidence,. Remind Americans that Trump went to court dozens of times after the 2020 election, and when judges then<\/i> demanded evidence of fraud, he had nothing. He had his ass handed to him in court after court.
Right now, in the L.A. mayoral race, Trump’s candidate, Spencer Pratt, trails the #2 candidate, Nithya Raman, by nearly 22,000 votes<\/a>. Democrats should demand that Trump show us the fraudulent votes that would overcome that margin. And when Trump or Mike Johnson or any other Republican says, “Oooh, but Democrats are so diabolical that we can’t find the fraud,” the correct response is, “Donald Trump, you’re the president of the United States! You control the Justice Department — oh, and by the way, you controlled the Justice Department after the 2020 election! You couldn’t find fraud then and you won’t find it now. You want to prove me wrong? Go ahead and try — and if you fail, you should shut the fuck up.”
And as for the Republicans pushing the “lite” version of Trump’s argument — this may not be fraud, but it’s terrible for democracy<\/i> — Democrats should say, “Why is this a problem? The general election is nearly six months away. You don’t even live in California. Unless you find fraud — which you haven’t — why is this any of your business? Do you have money on this election? Do you have a bet on Polymarket and you need the cash now?
“If the state is doing something wrong, take the state to court. If not, let the process play out. It’s not a crisis for democracy just because the results hurt your feelings.”
Go on offense, Democrats. Challenge every Republican argument. The process is working just fine, and you should say so. Don’t let Republicans create a “cloud of suspicion” out of nothing.\r\n
\r\n
Source link nomoremister.blogspot.com<\/a>\r\n
California’s ballot counting is slow but standard, with mail-in ballots predominantly from Democrats. They are accepted up to a week post-Election Day if postmarked by then, a practice some Republicans criticize. This year’s primaries show a “red mirage” on election night and a “blue shift” as mail-in votes are tallied. GOP leaders, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, claim the delays suggest election mismanagement, hinting at potential fraud without evidence. Democrats are encouraged to defend the voting process, refuting these claims and emphasizing careful counting. They should challenge Republicans to provide proof of fraud, reinforcing the election’s integrity.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California is counting ballots slowly, as it always does. Mail-in ballots are largely from Democrats, as is the case in most states, because more Democrats than Republicans prefer to vote by mail. In California a ballot counts if it arrives up to a week after Election Day as long as it was postmarked by Election Day. This is similar to…","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":70,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}