Los Angeles County is drowning in rabid bats — a record 76 tested positive in 2026 — while the same local government apparatus insists it's "unfeasible" to verify 20,000 flagged voter registrations before Election Day.
The numbers tell a story of a government that has lost the thread on basic responsibilities. Seventy-six bats tested positive for rabies in LA County this year, surpassing the previous record of 69 set just last year, according to FOX Weather. In August alone, 24 rabid bats were confirmed. Nearly a third of all bats submitted for testing that month came back positive. The county has seen a steady upward trend in rabid bat detections for more than a decade.
"Bats are an important part of our environment, but they can be infected with and spread rabies, a disease that is almost always fatal once symptoms appear," said Muntu Davis, MD, Los Angeles County health officer.
It gets worse. In September, county health officials confirmed a rabies-positive raccoon in Westlake Village — the first rabid raccoon detected in the county since 1973. The animal was found in a residential backyard where a dog may have had contact with it. Four people at a nearby worksite may have been exposed and were receiving follow-up care. Officials believe the raccoon contracted the virus from a bat.
Statewide, 314 bats tested positive for rabies across California in 2025, compared with 229 in 2024 — a 37% increase.
This is the same county government now locked in a federal court fight with the Department of Justice over voter roll integrity. The DOJ delivered a list of roughly 20,000 people Homeland Security investigators say are "likely noncitizens" registered to vote in California. LA County Registrar Dean Logan found only 7,035 had addresses in the county, and some were duplicates, NPR reported.
County officials sampled 200 records from the federal list and found it "unreliable," according to Assistant Registrar-Recorder Monica Flores. Nearly 39% of those where birthplace was reported indicated they were born in the United States — strong evidence of citizenship. About 70% of the sampled individuals had no voting history, and 112 of the 200 had registrations already canceled or inactive.
"At best, this litigation is a reckless political stunt," the state wrote in court filings. "At worst, it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election."
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter acknowledged potential errors: "There may be some names on there who it turns out ultimately are citizens, we're not perfect."
So the county can't get a handle on a decade-long surge in rabid wildlife, and the federal government can't produce a clean list of noncitizen voters. Both failures land on ordinary Americans — one sends you to the emergency room, the other erodes confidence in elections.
The question neither level of government wants to answer: what exactly are they managing to get right?
