The Orange County Republican Party forcefully quashed unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2024 election, debunking allegations that were spread after Democrats flipped a hotly contested Congressional seat.
In a county that is home to some of the most competitive House races in the nation, local party leaders need to forcefully address the false claims, which will hinder Republican participation in future elections. He said he was concerned about this.
Orange County Republican Party Executive Director Randall Avila represents the 45th Congressional District in Los Angeles and Orange County, where Democratic challenger Derek Tran defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Michelle Steele by just 653 votes in November. listed.
“If 1000 people see it, [the claims of voter fraud] “And you think, ‘Well, I don’t even have to vote, it doesn’t matter.’ Especially in a very close race like this, that really hurts our cause,” Avila said Friday. spoke.
Avila said the Orange County Republican Party pushed back on claims of voter fraud last week in a detailed email to a mailing list of about 60,000 people. Local political parties also debunked this claim in a question-and-answer format on social media.
“We support common-sense reforms like eliminating voter ID and universal voting by mail to ensure free and fair elections, but false claims of voter fraud will only undermine our efforts. , and if voters believe that their vote will not be counted, it will ultimately reduce the number of Republican votes,” the email said, along with some of the issues raised. A point-by-point explanation of the counterarguments was also included.
Voting fraud is rare enough to disappear In the US. But since President-elect Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and falsely claimed he had won, false claims of widespread fraud have permeated US discourse, particularly the right-wing media ecosystem. . Since then, years of attacks on election integrity have taken a toll, with polls showing deep partisan divides on whether Americans trust the electoral process. There is.
Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of political science at Pomona College who served on the state redistricting commission, praised the Orange County Republican Party’s decision to speak out.
“False claims about voter fraud have been plentiful in recent years, many made by President-elect Donald Trump. It’s a breath of fresh air to see that happen,” Sadhwani said.
Orange County’s false claims were explained in a recently published blog post that quickly went viral. They were amplified by many prominent right-wing figures, Including Roger Stonea longtime Trump ally, was convicted of lying to Congress during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The blog post claimed to have uncovered “major discrepancies in the ballots” that could change the outcome of the House election. The alleged discrepancies centered on several issues. For one, the number of ballots the county issued (including all printed ballots, including mail-in ballots that were later sent to the homes of voters who voted in person) exceeded the number of registered voters. . The other concerned the difference between the number of registered voters at the pre-election deadline and the final number of registered voters on election day. Local Republican leaders said the difference is because about 40,000 Orange County residents registered to vote on or near Election Day, as allowed by California law.
Avila estimated that at least 20 people who saw the misinformation online went to Tustin party headquarters to raise the issue, and another 60 to 70 people contacted him by phone. After receiving a flood of concerns, the party chief said his office contacted local voter registrars to gather information and get the facts straight before providing a detailed explanation.
“If we had a House crisis here and there was voter fraud, we would have lawyers here. We would be in court,” said the Orange County-based Republican. said John Fleischman, a strategist and former executive director of the California Republican Party.
Fleischman said despite criticism of some of California’s election laws, such as the fact that all Californians will receive a mail-in ballot and that the ballot will be accepted for up to a week, He reiterated that it was not reality. Postmarks must be valid after the election and before Election Day.
“Elections should end on Election Day,” Fleischman said, adding that laws requiring long waiting periods before votes are counted are increasing public confusion and mistrust.
Avila also called for reform to California’s voter accessibility law. The law gives voters more choices than in other states and exacerbates California’s notoriously slow vote-counting process. But like Fleischman, he drew a clear line between those allowances and actual fraud.
“There’s no real legal challenge here,” says Mindy Romero, a political sociologist who runs the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California. “Therefore, not speaking out or refuting allegations of fraud will only undermine the integrity of our elections.”
