Shawn Steel: Democrats Won California Seats with Ballots Counted After Election Day
Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press
Shawn Steel, the Republican National Committee members for California, told Breitbart News Sunday that Democrats won several congressional seats in the Golden State because ballots received after Election Day were counted — a practice that would have been illegal in other states.
Steel is the husband of Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), who lost narrowly to Democratic challenger Derek Tran by 603 votes, though she led by 10,000 on Election Day.
“It all goes back to COVID, the way they changed the laws … they flooded the market with absentee ballots to everybody,” Steel told Breitbart News Sunday. His wife won Election Day votes, and even absentee ballots, but lost big among ballots collected in drop boxes.
He added that one-third of the votes in the 45th district, which is an inland district in Orange County, came in after Election Day.
Republican incumbents lost three seats in California, though the GOP retained overall control of the House by a narrow majority. Republicans also narrowly missed flipping a Democrat-held seat in California, Steel said.
Steel’s wife, Rep. Steel, was targeted by pro-choice groups over her pro-life stances, in a strategy Democrats adopted nationwide. But Shawn Steel maintained that she was beaten by the late ballot counts — perfectly legal in California, but outlawed in other parts of the country.
He noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit — which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi — had struck down state laws that allowed ballots to be counted after Election Day, even if they had been postmarked by Election Day. The RNC had challenged a Mississippi law that allowed such ballots to be counted.
The committeeman has long been a champion of the idea that Republicans should adopt Democrats’ own “ballot harvesting” tactics against them, but said Sunday that a return to the classic model — one day of voting, in person, with photo ID, and registration in advance — was necessary.
Rep. Steel may be under consideration for a post in the incoming Trump administration, including ambassador to South Korea.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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