Barabak: There's nothing phony about California elections. The same can't be said for Trump and his enablers.

"Is Mike Johnson stupid? The five-term Louisiana congressman earned a law degree and maneuvered his way to become speaker of the House. That requires a certain mental aptitude. However, wanting that job, which entails bowing and scraping to President Donald Trump while herding an unruly GOP conference with an eyelash-thin majority, does tend to land on the stupid side of the scale. But maybe Johnson isn't stupid. Maybe he's just willfully ignorant, or uninformed. Perhaps he simply doesn't know any better."

"With an apparent eye toward rigging the 2026 midterm election, Trump suggested Republicans should take over the voting in at least 15 places, which, presumably, would all be Democratic strongholds. Johnson bowing, scraping echoed Trump's phony claims of corruption to justify the president's latest treachery. In some of the states, like in California, for example. I mean, they hold the elections open for weeks after election day, Johnson told reporters."

"Fact check: There was no hocus-pocus. No holding open of elections to allow for manipulation of the result. No voting or any other kind of fraud. California does take awhile to count its ballots and finalize its elections. If people want a quicker count, then push lawmakers in Sacramento to spend more on the consistently underfunded election offices that tally the results in California's 58 counties."

Mike Johnson echoed President Trump's allegations that California's ballot casting and counting are suspect, claiming Republicans lost leads as later ballots arrived. Trump proposed taking over voting in at least 15 jurisdictions to influence outcomes. Fact checks found no fraud, no manipulated or deliberately held-open elections, and no evidence of nefarious activity in California's counts. The slower finalization of results reflects county-by-county procedures and chronic underfunding of California's 58 county election offices. The practical remedy offered is to push state lawmakers in Sacramento to increase funding so counts can be completed more quickly.

Read at www.mercurynews.com