The Brief

Most California voters cast their ballots by mail. But there are currently attempts underway to limit how those ballots are handled and counted in the November election.

In March last year, President Trump issued an executive order which, among other things, aims to give the U.S. Postal Service the final say over who receives a mail-in ballot.

But on Thursday, that was blocked by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who said the move exceeded the President’s authority under the Constitution, which gives state legislatures and Congress the power to set rules for federal elections.

“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” Talwani wrote in a 37-page opinion.

In response to the executive order, USPS had earlier released proposed rules which would require states to send names of eligible mail-in voters to USPS, who would add them to a centralized list.

Whether states would agree to share voter information with the federal government, which California has so far refused to do in other situations, is another matter.

Thursday's decision blocking the order is not final, however. The adminstration could appeal the ruling, or try to send the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could hand down a decision before the November election.

A major ruling could end mail-in grace periods

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling soon on a separate issue: grace periods for mail-in ballots.

Fourteen states, including California, count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by then and show up within a certain window. The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision that could end that kind of grace period.

The case in question is Watson v. Republican National Committee, which centers on whether Mississippi’s five-day grace period for late-arriving ballots is constitutional under federal law. In California, that period is seven days.

Geoffrey Skelley,  chief elections analyst at Decision Desk HQ, told LAist the RNC’s argument centers on a federal law enacted in 1845 that set Election Day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and that’s why votes shouldn’t be accepted after it.

A decision on that is expected to come within the next month, according to Wren Orey, who directs the elections project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The Washington D.C.-based think tank works with both sides of the political aisle to craft policy suggestions.

Orey told LAist it’s looking like the justices will side with the RNC and overturn Mississippi’s law. However, it’s not known how broad the ruling could be. The Purcell principle, a legal doctrine that discourages last-minute changes to election procedures, could also be invoked.

“ It’s possible that the Supreme Court rules that this specific statute is unconstitutional, but their judgment doesn’t go into effect until after the election,” they said.

Some critics say the Supreme Court has unevenly applied this principle, pointing to how a ruling affected Alabama’s primary when voters had already begun casting ballots.

The effort comes as Trump and his allies have scrutinized mail-in ballots for years, claiming without evidence that states with longer count times and universal mail-in voting are allowing widespread cheating. Research shows fraud rates remain extremely small.

The U.S. Postal Service may soon decide who to send mail-in ballots to.

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How it could affect California

Just over 400,000 ballots arrived during California’s grace period in 2024 — that’s 2.5% of voter turnout. Orey said these usually come from areas that take more time for mail carriers to deliver, so it could disadvantage rural residents, for example. It’s unclear if there would be a carve out for service members and overseas voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which get rejected at higher rates.

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s research shows about the same rate of late ballot rejections between states with a grace period and those without, Orey said, suggesting that voters adapt to their state’s deadline.

“What isn’t clear, though, is how long it takes for voters to adjust,” they said, adding that they’ve seen some evidence of rejections going up immediately after a grace period goes away.

Workers count Los Angeles County ballots in the City of Industry on June 3.

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Skelley said a lot of voters would likely become aware and adjust in part because of how publicized the decision would be, but it wouldn’t solve everything.

“Now, does that mean some would be affected and might miss out on a chance to vote?” he said. “Yes, that’s perfectly plausible.”

California is also notoriously criticized for how long it takes to count ballots, even though that’s a feature, not a bug, of our election process. If the justices decide to end grace periods, don’t expect big changes to that.

That’s mostly because our slowness stems from the volume of mail-in ballots received on Election Day, Orey said. Those need to be verified, opened and flattened to be processed, which takes more time than if you voted in person.

The Los Angeles Metro Board voted unanimously Thursday to move forward with a plan that would create the first-ever seat for a regular transit rider on the agency’s governing board. Such a plan would need state approval before it becomes final.

Another motion put forward by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass passed on a 12-1 vote. That motion would also reserve a seat — one of the L.A. mayor’s three appointees — for a rider or rider advocate. Both rider seats would have voting power. The make up of the rest of the board would largely remain the same, although members asked Metro staff to further study adding a labor representative.

The L.A. Metro Board has an annual budget of nearly $10 billion and facilitates countywide transportation projects.

Earlier this year, a Metro committee began debating the future composition of its board. The discussion was prompted by Measure G, the voter-approved initiative that will expand the county Board of Supervisors from five to nine members, and add a position for an elected countywide executive.

Five of the Metro Board’s 13 voting seats are reserved for county supervisors. Bass’ motion maintains the five county seats and will leave it up to the Board of Supervisors to decide who, including the county executive, will have a seat on the Metro Board.

Lindsey Horvath, an L.A. County supervisor and Metro board member, cast the lone dissenting vote Thursday on Bass’ motion. Horvath said she supports the inclusion of a rider voice on the board, but had campaigned for a designated seat for the county executive.

“ The county executive will be the only elected seat to represent the entire county of Los Angeles,” Horvath told LAist before Thursday’s vote. “For that position to not be at the decision-making table on something as critical as transit solutions for the region ... makes absolutely no sense.”

The make up of the Metro Board is codified in the state’s public utilities code, so any proposed changes approved on Thursday will need another vote by legislators in Sacramento before they become official.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump feted Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at the White House on Thursday, calling the team “one of the great brands anywhere in the world” during a Rose Garden event celebrating its second title in as many years.

Trump said the Dodgers edging the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 last fall capped “a hell of a series.” He indicated he was surprised to learn that the Dodgers had never before won consecutive titles but also mused about a third in a row.

“I’m thrilled to say welcome back to the White House,” he said. “And maybe I’ll see you again next year.”

The president saluted the team in the East Room in April 2025 to mark their 2024 World Series championship over the New York Yankees. He said before the latest event that he was most excited about meeting Ohtani, whom he compared at length to the legendary Babe Ruth — even saying the Dodgers star was arguably the best hitter and pitcher in baseball.

“It’s truly a great — when you talk about a brand — it’s one of the great brands anywhere in the world,” Trump said of the Dodgers. He spoke in front of a table with two World Series trophies and a Trump 47 jersey, which the team presented to him.

The Dodgers also gave Trump what looked like a replica of a World Series ring. That prompted Trump to exclaim: “Wow. Do I have to report this? I don’t want to report this” before slipping the ring into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

Trump says Iran war has kept him from following baseball closely

Those in the crowd wore blue Dodgers caps to guard against bright overhead sun, and the band played a jazzy instrumental version of Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” before Trump took the stage.

Trump described last year’s World Series’ epic Game 3 during which the Dodgers won 6-5 in 18 innings. Trump said he stayed up until around 3 a.m. to watch, noting that “it was a long one, but it was amazing.”

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani.

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“I thought it was a game that you were going to lose about four or five times, and you ended up winning,” he said, adding, “Luck is OK, too, right?” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts agreed: “Luck is OK.”

“But with talent you get a lot of luck,” Trump continued.

The president said he spoke briefly with Roberts before the event and learned that his team currently has the best record in baseball, noting, “I’ve been a little busy with Iran and some other things.”

That was his only reference during the event to fighting in the Middle East, which has escalated on both sides in recent days.

Roberts also spoke briefly, saying, “We’re going for a three-peat.”

Championship baseball teams have been coming to the White House since 1869, when President Ulysses S. Grant hosted the Cincinnati Red Stockings. They were the first fully professional team to visit the White House and went undefeated that season, though the World Series wasn’t established in its modern form until 1903.

Sports teams’ visits to the Trump White House have sometimes been a source of controversy. In 2018, the president rescinded an invitation to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles after many players suggested they might skip such a trip.

Dodgers star right fielder Mookie Betts wasn’t at Thursday’s Rose Garden event, though he did make the 2025 visit. He said he prefers to spend the team’s scheduled days off with his family.

The Dodgers originally considered coming to the White House this past April during a series with the Washington Nationals, but a crowded early season schedule didn’t permit that. Instead, they’re in the nation’s capital during the off-day between a just-completed series against the Philadelphia Phillies and Friday’s opener against the New York Mets in Queens.

The White House has changed since the Dodgers’ last visit

Over the past year, Trump has revamped the Rose Garden and added a patio area reminiscent of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. At Thursday’s event for the Dodgers, he referenced the “ Walk of Fame ” installed on the colonnade, which features plaques of past presidents along with partisan insults against Joe Biden and other Democrats.

“I could put some of the great Dodgers on the wall,” Trump joked, “but I figured maybe it’s more appropriate that we put the presidents.”

Trump, a baseball fan and New York native, has for years been closely associated with the Yankees, whose late, longtime owner George Steinbrenner was a close friend. Trump referenced Steinbrenner on Thursday, saying, “He would do anything to win” before telling the Dodgers’ team owners, “But you’re doing the same thing.”

The president isn’t always so complimentary of teams, though. During a rally in Georgia on Wednesday, he praised the ownership of the local Atlanta Braves and slammed the Mets for their sky-high payroll and losing record.

Trump was joined on stage during that event by former Braves manager Brian Snitker, and Mike Plant, president and CEO of the Braves Development Company.

”You know, the Mets have the highest salary in baseball, and they lose all the time,” Trump said then. "And I’m like, maybe we can steal this guy.”

“There are teams like that, where they never go down,” Trump said. “Then you have other teams — ‘We’re rebuilding.’ They’ve been rebuilding for years. I don’t want to mention teams ’cause I know all the owners. They’re all friends of mine.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Republican Steve Hilton launched his general election campaign for California governor Wednesday with a gambit to win over left-leaning voters who dominate the state: Even if they loathe President Donald Trump, he said, they should consider voting for him.

During an event in Los Angeles, against the backdrop of a stinking, scorched food warehouse he described as a symbol of the state’s political incompetence, Hilton rolled out a list of campaign promises clearly aimed at residents buckling under California’s notoriously high cost of living. He vowed to bring the price of gasoline down to $3 a gallon, about half the current cost, cut residents’ utility bills in half, now among the nation’s highest, and eliminate state income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings.

He blamed the state’s problems — from homelessness to low student test scores — squarely on Democrats, who hold every statewide office and supermajorities in the Legislature. He called Democrats a “rotten regime that has abandoned the working class.”

In his campaign remarks and ads he took out in leading newspapers throughout the state, Hilton addressed his relationship with Trump, who has endorsed him in the race.

“This is not about who you hate in Washington. It’s about what we love about California and what we can do to make California once again the best place anywhere in the country to start and raise a family, to start and run a business,” he said before a small group of supporters. “That’s what this election is about.”

Hilton’s maneuver is meant to create a sliver of distance from Trump without breaking from him. It’s a tacit nod to the political math in California, one of the nation’s most solidly Democratic states. Registered Republicans are outnumbered nearly 2-to-1 by Democratic voters, and a GOP candidate hasn’t won a statewide election since 2006.

Trump is widely unpopular in California outside his loyal conservative base. In 2016, Trump lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 30 points; in 2020, he lost to Joe Biden by 29 points; and in 2024, he lost to Kamala Harris by 20 points.

California is regarded as the home of the so-called Trump resistance, where Democrats have effectively used Trump as a foil in campaigns to motivate voters. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom essentially nationalized the state’s fight over Proposition 50, which recast U.S. House districts to favor Democrats, by framing it as a confrontation with Trump. The measure notched a 29-point win.

The campaign of Hilton’s Democratic opponent, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, scoffed at the notion of Hilton being a change agent.

“Californians already know who Steve Hilton is: Trump’s puppet in California. His campaign is a promise to run our state the way Trump runs the country and we’re not buying it,” campaign spokesman Jonathan Underland said in a statement.

As for Hilton’s pitch that voters who dislike Trump should feel free to consider him in November, Underland said, “Steve Hilton cheers on a president whose illegal war has sent gas prices soaring and illegal tariffs have cost California families more than $2,500 this year alone. You can’t fix the affordability crisis while carrying water for the man causing it.”

In a heavily Democratic state, Hilton’s campaign is hoping his appeal to Democrats and independents will “give voters a permission slip” to look past the letter next to a candidate’s name, even in a nation deeply divided by partisanship.

“You do have a choice if you think that this state is going in the wrong direction,” he told supporters at a kickoff event in Boyle Heights, a Los Angeles neighborhood where residents have been complaining about the stench of rotting food, flies and rodents that followed a fire last month at a cold storage warehouse.

He was accompanied by Gloria Romero, a former Democratic state lawmaker who switched parties in 2024 and is this year’s Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. She delivered her own address in both English and Spanish, with supporters holding “Hilton-Romero” signs in the background.

Becerra, a former state lawmaker, congressman and state attorney general, is heavily favored to win the seat now held by Newsom, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate who is barred by law from seeking a third term. Hilton and Becerra emerged from a chaotic primary election in June that had more than 50 candidates on the ballot.

The race is unfolding at a time when California is facing multiple crises. Despite billions in spending, homelessness remains widespread, especially in larger cities. Multibillion-dollar budget gaps are projected into the future. Home prices remain out of reach for many residents. The home insurance market is in disarray, businesses and residents have been fleeing the state, and residents contend with some of the nation’s highest gas prices, taxes and utility bills.

Making good on his campaign promises won’t be an easy task for Hilton, a former adviser to ex-United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron who has never held elective office. The governor doesn’t control the oil or utility markets, but Hilton says he will get rid of mandates, taxes and fees that drive those prices higher. He also would likely need the consent of a Legislature controlled by Democrats to change the state’s income tax structure.

Hilton crowned his campaign kickoff with a 30-second TV ad underscoring the financial challenges for many families.

“Life here has become impossible for anyone who isn’t already rich,” he says. “Let’s fix California.”