White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, accusing him of ignoring rampant election security problems in his own state.
Newsom reposted Leavitt’s exchange with reporters about election fraud, adding the caption “They cheat and lie because they know they are going to lose.” Leavitt fired back by blasting Newsom and accusing him of refusing to adopt “commonsense election integrity measures,” pointing out that California doesn’t even require voters to show photo ID before casting a ballot, before telling him to “stop tweeting at me and do your job.”
“California has among the WORST laws for securing elections in the entire nation. Governor Newscum and the rest of the radical Democrats in California blatantly refuse to adopt commonsense election integrity measures,” Leavitt wrote. “I will lay out the facts for one of the worst governors in America to understand: California doesn’t require voters to show photo ID before casting a ballot – despite nearly 90% of Americans supporting photo ID laws.”
Leavitt found fault with the state’s universal mail-in-balloting system.
California has among the WORST laws for securing elections in the entire nation.
Governor Newscum and the rest of the radical Democrats in California blatantly refuse to adopt commonsense election integrity measures.
I will lay out the facts for one of the worst governors in… https://t.co/NCPasfz75E
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) November 4, 2025
“California uses universal mail-in-balloting, which we know is extremely vulnerable to fraud and abuse. In the 2024 election alone, California mailed nearly 10 million mail-in ballots that were never returned,” Leavitt added. “The bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission in 2005 found: ‘absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud’ and ‘vote by mail is . . . likely to increase the risks of fraud.’”
She went on to note that San Francisco allows non-citizens to vote in local elections.
“San Francisco even allows non-citizens to vote in local elections, which creates a high risk of fraud in federal elections. California reported 2,178,551 duplicate registrations in the 2024 election cycle – 15.6% of total registered voters – and seven counties completely failed to provide data on duplicate registrations,” Leavitt added. “California only removed 378,349 registered voters for death (11.9%), which was well below the national average.”
Jimmy Carter and James Baker co-chaired the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform, which warned that absentee ballots pose the greatest risk for potential voter fraud. San Francisco allows non-U.S. citizens to vote in local Board of Education elections but bars them from participating in state or federal races. (RELATED: ‘Just Want To Be Left Alone’: Farmers Fed Up With Newsom’s Latest Gambit)
Leavitt’s comments came as California voters blasted Newsom and state Democrats over their gerrymandering ballot push, according to more than 19,000 public submissions the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained. The state committee received thousands of negative responses about the proposed temporary congressional maps before the special election announcement.
Out of roughly 20,000 submissions, most rejected the proposal and accused Newsom and state Democrats of advancing it. Some urged officials to address California’s own problems instead of waging political battles with the Trump administration.
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