No, Spencer Pratt didn’t get zero votes in a 24,000-vote Los Angeles mayor ballot update
PolitiFact – Rulings and Stories — 2026-06-08 16:48:00 — www.politifact.com
Donald Trump Repeats False Claims of Election Fraud in California Mayoral Primary
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Democrats are committing election fraud in the California primary, fueling a wave of misinformation following a data reporting lag on election night in Los Angeles.
The controversy began after several X accounts, along with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Elon Musk, circulated a claim that 24,000 new ballots were reported in the Los Angeles mayoral primary, with Republican candidate Spencer Pratt receiving zero votes. This narrative gained traction as Trump echoed allegations of Democratic fraud.
However, Bill Essayli, who leads the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles and whom Trump has said is investigating alleged fraud, directly refuted the claim. “We reviewed official county records. The claim is false. Each candidate received votes in every update,” Essayli stated. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office confirmed that Pratt received votes in every reported update.
The origin of the false claim was a temporary data lag in the Associated Press’s vote count system, which momentarily showed zero new votes for Pratt due to an out-of-sync update. Official records and independent election data outlets confirm that no batch of results ever reported zero votes for Pratt.
Despite these facts, Trump continued to assert, without supporting evidence, that Democrats were engaging in election fraud. This pattern of amplifying baseless claims has contributed to ongoing public confusion and mistrust in the electoral process.
Conclusion
President Trump’s repeated, unsupported allegations of election fraud in the California mayoral primary have been thoroughly debunked by official records and independent data sources. The claim that Spencer Pratt received zero votes in a major ballot update is false, stemming from a momentary data reporting lag rather than any evidence of fraud. This episode highlights the ongoing impact of false statements on public confidence in elections.
Source: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2026/jun/08/tweets/spencer-pratt-ballot-dump-zero-votes-24000/