Trump offers cash for those who can prove voter fraud ahead of election
Donald Trump has promised a $A1.4 million bounty for anyone who reports voter fraud in next week’s midterm election.
Trump made the promise on Truth Social as his party faces a massive electoral defeat in next week’s election.
President Donald Trump yells as he arrives on Air Force One. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
“Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud!” Trump wrote.
Shortly afterwards, a court ruled the Trump administration could not force California to set aside 20,000 ballots from people they claimed to be non-citizens.
The court denied the emergency appeal made by the administration.
"The United States’s claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one," the ruling said.
"At least part of the delay here is attributable to the United States’s own delay in filing suit, in realising that existing California state law governs the issuance and processing of ballots, in recognising that California has millions of registered voters and processes ballots on a schedule aligned with that scale, and in communicating to the court its desired relief."
Trump has long fixated on California as a source for alleged non-citizen voting, but has yet to find any substantial evidence of it.
Earlier this year the administration accused California of having 190,000 illegal voters on the rolls.
Donald Trump has spoken about voter fraud as a common problem. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Then the number was revised down to 20,000, before charging 28 people last week.
Californian officials told the court their safeguards against illegal voting were robust, and the claims made by the Trump administration were "suspect".
“All the evidence — counts, recounts, hand counts, audits — shows that voter fraud is exceedingly rare,” California Attorney-General Rob Bonta said.
"We will fight back against the Administration’s unlawful overreach at every turn."
Governor Gavin Newsom celebrated the court's decision, describing Trump's move as an attack on the US constitution and elections.
"Today’s ruling is a positive development and a welcome speed bump to Trump’s disgusting attacks on the Constitution and our country’s democracy," Newsom said.
"Make no mistake: Trump’s assault on democracy won’t slow down."
He urged Californians to vote in the upcoming election.
A random sample of 200 from Los Angeles County officials of the 20,000 names found "major discrepancies" in the list.
Most had no voting history and nearly 40 per cent were born in the United States.
A list of names sent to Mendocino county officials to investigate contained nobody who actually lived in the county.
Trump also directed his Justice Department to sue the state of Alaska over a Senate race where two candidates had the same name.
On Monday Trump described the Brazilian election, in which incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was re-elected against the odds, as “rigged”.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addresses supporters in Sao Paulo during a victory rally after winning a fourth term. AP
"I didn't take sides, but it looked like another rigged election," Trump said.
"It looked very bad to me."
Lula defeated Flavio Bolsonaro by four million votes, a surprisingly strong win.
Bolsonaro, whose father also served as president, was expected to win after a strong performance in the first round of voting.
But voters coalesced around Lula, a left-wing Trump critic who has already served three terms as president.
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