California court denies appeal to stop Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure of more than 650,000 ballots

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California court denies appeal to stop Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure of more than 650,000 ballots

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A California court on Tuesday rejected the state attorney general’s appeal to halt the Riverside County sheriff’s election fraud investigation.

In a statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said the appeals court denied their request “based solely on where we filed the case and not a decision on the merits of the motion.”

“The facts have not changed. The Riverside County Sheriff continues to directly defy the Attorney General’s instructions, in violation of the California Constitution and state law,” Bonta’s office wrote. “We are evaluating next steps to ensure a timely and appropriate resolution to this matter.”

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a candidate for governor, seized more than 611,000 ballots from Accessory 50 special elections in which voters approved a redistricting measure that shifted five of the Republican seats in the California House of Representatives to seats more favorable to Democrats in this year’s midterm elections.

Proposition 50 passed in Riverside County with more than 56 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press. Votes in favor of the new congressional maps exceeded those against by about 82,570 votes, according to AP.

Bianco said his agency was investigating a complaint from a local group alleging a possible discrepancy in which about 45,800 additional votes were reported to the California secretary of state. He described the investigation as a “fact-finding mission.”

“This investigation is simple: physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes reported,” he said at a press conference last Friday.

When contacted by CBS LA, Bianco’s office responded Saturday morning with the following statement:

“Shame on you, the media, for believing an attorney general with a history of lying and then repeating his lies. Shame on you for not watching or paying attention to our press conference,” the statement said. “It’s simple, we’re counting ballots, not yeas or nays. This is not a recount, it’s a straight ballot count. You, the media, are responsible for the ‘media circus’ with clickbait headlines and misleading, twisted sensationalism. The only question you should be asking is why Democratic politicians are fighting this investigation so hard. This makes no sense.”

Secretary of State Shirley Weber said allegations of discrepancies “lack credible evidence and risk undermining public confidence in our elections.”

“The fact remains that he and his deputies are not election officials and have no expertise in election administration,” Weber said in a statement. “Investigations into election processes must be conducted by individuals with appropriate legal authority and subject matter expertise. Similar claims raised in other states by individuals with no election administration experience have been thoroughly examined and debunked.”

County elections officials also disputed Bianco’s claim, saying the automatic count and the final tally submitted to the state differed by about 100 votes. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters said it “will continue to comply with all lawful court orders and legal obligations applicable to election equipment and election administration.”

“I hope we can all agree that there is no acceptable error, large or small, in our elections, much less a difference of 45,000 votes,” Bianco said.

Bonta said his office has sent letters to Bianco’s agency over the past two months, echoing Weber’s sentiment that his staff was not qualified to conduct a recount and that the investigation was sowing distrust in the election.

“The sheriff has not identified any specific crime that may have been committed by anyone – a necessary prerequisite for obtaining a criminal search warrant,” Bonta’s office said in a statement. “In his own words, this investigation aims “as much to prove that the election is accurate as to demonstrate the opposite”. There is a robust civil process, overseen by state and local election officials, for requesting a recount or contesting the results of an election. This process has not been invoked here.

At a news conference Friday, a group of community leaders and politicians gathered to voice their concerns about Bianco’s investigation. Several politicians clarified that they were there as voters and concerned citizens, and not in an official capacity.

Vonya Quarles, executive director of Starting Over Inc, a nonprofit helping formerly incarcerated people, said Bianco’s actions should concern all voters and county supervisors, regardless of party affiliation.

“Let me be clear, law enforcement should not be involved in monitoring elections or counting ballots,” Quarles said. “Elections belong to the people and must remain independent, transparent and free from political interference.”

Joan Donahue, president of the League of Women Voters Riverside, called the action a law enforcement overreach that breaks public trust.

“Actions like this risk undermining the will of voters and eroding confidence in the results,” Donahue said.

Riverside council member Clarissa Cervantes said she and other local leaders filed a petition with the California Supreme Court to have the ballots returned to the registrar’s office. She explained that the petition argues that while Bianco has the authority to investigate, he does not have the legal authority to remove ballots or preside over a recount.

Until March, most polls showed Bianco, Republican commentator and conservative Steve Hilton in the top two spots.

In the state’s primary system, only the top two vote-getters in the June primary will advance to the November general election. That has led to a host of progressive candidates vying for the roughly 60 percent of the vote that Democrats typically get in statewide elections. The plethora of candidates could end up finding themselves out of the race in November if too many of them split the vote.

“The challenge might be that Democrats, in sharing their 60% of the pie, divide it into such small pieces that the candidates get 8%, 10%, 12%, 14%, 19%,” said political consultant Paul Mitchell.

Two mid-March polls give Hilton and Democratic candidates billionaires Tom Steyer and Rep. Eric Swalwell consolidating their support.

According to the UC Berkeley-Politico poll, Hilton still holds first place with 19%, Steyer comes in second with 13%, and the other candidates follow closely: