Los Angeles, California – June 6, 2026
Slow Ballot Counting and Empty Workstations in Los Angeles Raise Serious Questions About Election Integrity
More than four days after the June 2 primary, Los Angeles County continues to struggle with a massive backlog of uncounted ballots, prompting widespread concern over the pace and transparency of the vote-counting process. County officials reported that only 77,521 additional ballots have been processed since election night, leaving an estimated 713,180 ballots still uncounted.
Reporters from the New York Post who visited the county’s 144,000-square-foot ballot processing facility observed dozens of vacant workstations and long rows of empty chairs despite the enormous backlog. In one area where ballots that scanners could not read are reviewed, approximately 25 bins sat ready for processing with no workers seated at the nearby desks. In another section where envelopes are opened and ballots prepared for counting, roughly 75 workers were present in a space that could accommodate more than twice that number.
One of the most striking developments involved a large batch of 24,000 ballots delivered in a recent drop. Republican mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt received zero votes from that entire batch. The outcome has intensified questions about how such a significant number of ballots could produce no support for a major candidate.
California gubernatorial frontrunner Steve Hilton called on Governor Gavin Newsom to create an Emergency Election Count Accelerator Corps, mobilizing additional state personnel to help counties clear backlogs more quickly. Hilton stated that California has become “the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to election reporting,” noting that a state with Silicon Valley and advanced technology should not require a month to count fewer than 10 million ballots.
President Trump posted on Truth Social that Democrats appear to be attempting to “STEAL THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA PRIMARY, AND THE MAYOR OF LOS ANGELES PRIMARY” through very late and massive numbers of mail-in ballots.
When asked about the empty workstations, one election center staff member told New York Post reporters not to be “fooled by what you see” but declined to provide further explanation. Los Angeles County spends nearly $336 million annually on its Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office, which has more than 1,100 budgeted positions and is led by Dean Logan, who earns $448,179 per year.
In sharp contrast, other states that held elections on the same day have nearly completed their counts. New Jersey has reported roughly 93 percent of ballots counted, while New Mexico and Montana are approaching 98 percent. Los Angeles County has more than 5.8 million registered voters, larger than the populations of most U.S. states.
The combination of visible understaffing, extremely slow processing, and unusual results in large ballot drops has fueled growing demands for greater accountability and faster, more transparent vote counting in America’s largest county.
