'Absurd': MAGA rep mocked for claiming people 'dumpster diving for ballots' in California

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) claimed on Monday that people in California were dumpster diving for ballots after Republicans saw a serious setback in the Los Angeles mayor race and votes continued six days after the primary.

The MAGA lawmaker made the unfounded fraud remarks during a Newsmax interview, commenting on the ongoing ballot count in California and responding to the GOP's frustration as former reality TV star and GOP candidate Los Angeles mayor candidate Spencer Pratt slipped out of the runoff race, placing third behind incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman.

"Some people can just dig through garbage cans, find ballots and send them in apparently forever after an election is over. It's not OK, it's got to come to an end and people need to go jail," Fine said.

But the internet was quick to call Fine out for his baseless allegations.

"This is a new one, an extension of classic 'ballots in a dumpster' rumors, suggesting that fraudsters are dumpster diving for ballots and then using them to vote. It [is] absurd and ignores any number of structural reasons that wouldn’t work as well as a complete lack of evidence of that happening," online rumors expert Kate Starbird, professor at the University of Washington, HCDE and co-founder of the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public, wrote on Bluesky.

"Randy Fine claims people are literally dumpster diving for fraudulent ballots in California. Cool story, bro," journalist Aaron Rupar, who has more than 1.1 million followers, wrote on X.

"Randy Fine is 2,000 miles away and a camera w----," neuroscientist and technologist Dr. Joseph Santoro, who has more than 18,000 followers and helped lead the White House and Organizing for Action during the Obama administration, wrote on X.

Governor Newsom Press Office, an official account for California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom with more than 704,000 followers on X, shared a circle graph teasing "no" and "no, but in yellow."