Democrat on California ballot counting: ‘Score at halftime’ different than end of game

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California Rep. Ted Lieu (D) on Tuesday criticized Republican concerns about the progression of his state’s elections by making a sports comparison.

“In California, I ask people to simply listen to the words of the Republican nominee for governor, Steve Hilton, who said that they’ve been vigilant and they’ve seen no cause to intervene in the counting of these votes,” Lieu said during a Tuesday press conference alongside Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the Democratic Caucus Chair.

“And as the chairman said, we just need to wait for all the votes to be counted, and the best analogy is, think of this as, let’s say, a football game, or a NBA game. Election night in California is sort of like a snapshot at halftime, and then you got about another, 40 to 50 percent of the mail-in ballots and the other ballots to be counted,” he added.

“So, the score at halftime is different than the score at the end of the game, doesn’t mean there’s fraud.”

Republicans expressed suspicions of foul play in last week’s California primary following mail-in votes counted over the weekend knocking Los Angeles Republican mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt into third place.

Last Wednesday, Pratt was leading Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a Democrat, by 8 points, but she has now notched a second-place spot behind current Mayor Karen Bass, also a Democrat. Bass and Raman will now move onto the November election, as local rules permit the top two finishers in races to do so if nobody gets over 50 percent of the vote.

Vice President Vance said Monday evening that the recent result of the mayoral election primary appeared “pretty shady to me,” with the two Democrats set to face off in November.

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California

California elections

JD Vance

Karen Bass

Pete Aguilar

Steve Hilton

Ted Lieu

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