CNN host Dana Bash on Friday mocked members of the MAGA movement who appear to assume California is taking a long time to count votes because political hijinks are afoot. Fox News host Jesse Waters explained, "I can't prove it — but everybody watching thinks there's shenanigans when it takes this long." Fox's Greg Gutfeld similarly proclaimed, "You know what that means," when he was told it would take a week or more to count the ballots. "These are baseless, fraud claims," Bash explained.California elections have always taken this long, largely due to the massive counties with populations of over 5 million people. Los Angeles County, for example, has a population of 9.6 to 9.8 million people. It's twice the size of Oklahoma.CNN's Elex Michaelson did an explainer video in which he said that about 80 percent of the voters cast ballots by mail. Each mail-in ballot goes through a signature verification process. There are more than 5.9 million registered voters in Los Angeles County. The single county is larger than 41 U.S. states. So, he said, there are many steps to prevent voter fraud. CNN's Aaron Blake showed a post from Gov. Ron DeSantis "who was never a big election denier" during the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. The Florida Republican asked whether California simply keeps counting until it gets the result it wants.Bash again reiterated that the comments aren't "based on anything that's actually happening."Time and time again, she said that California votes appear heavily Republican at the beginning and then slowly become more Democratic. If 80 percent of people vote by mail, those votes take longer to count because the ballot must be verified as authentic. Fewer Republicans vote by mail, according to an MIT Election Lab study."And part of the reason is that Donald Trump has spent years discouraging Republicans from returning mail ballots. And so, when you're counting these mail ballots late, they tend to be more Democratic-leaning," Blake said. He added that it has become commonplace for Republicans to seed suspicion that something untoward is happening, even if those conspiracy theories have tons of evidence to the contrary.
