The real questions for courts after Bianco seized Riverside County ballots

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco says he’d like to be our governor, but more and more it seems to me that the far-right provocateur’s real goal is simply to be MAGA famous.

It’s great. It’s very good. Honestly, who in Southern California hasn’t dreamed of their 15 minutes? And he certainly has the cop to play the role of a rogue Wild West lawman.

But Bianco’s quest for fame could help extremists derail U.S. elections, and that’s a problem — one that California needs to solve quickly, before the midterm elections suffer from his antics. There are two separate issues at play here, both of which the state courts will be asked to rule on in the coming days — Bianco is apparently suspending its so-called investigation until these cases provide some clarity and, hopefully, some sense.

First, are California sheriffs accountable to anyone, or are they a law unto themselves? Second, who in California can legally process and count ballots according to law, if state law actually counts?

The fact that these two questions are now being asked – together – is no coincidence. President Trump’s allegations of election fraud have been heading toward this moment for years, largely out of the consciousness of voters but intentionally pushed by those who would like to see MAGA officials stay in power, even at the expense of democracy.

The real question Riverside is answering right now – the one we should all be clear about – is this: If Republicans want to invalidate election results that don’t suit them in November, what’s the point in doing so?

Bianco tries to answer.

“This goes way beyond what Sheriff Bianco is doing,” said Matt Barreto, faculty director of the Voting Rights Project at UCLA. “…This should not happen. And again, it doesn’t matter whether Democrats or Republicans win, no sheriff should step in to take possession or take over the counting of ballots.”

By now, you’ve probably heard that Bianco obtained several secret, sealed search warrants from a friendly judge that allowed him to steal hundreds of thousands of ballots from his county during November’s Proposition 50 election.

Bianco says he has the right to seize these ballots and investigate as he sees fit – and that’s not our business or anyone else’s, not even State Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who ordered Bianco to stop what he was doing until Bonta could examine him.

Bianco largely ignored that order, harvesting even more ballots late last week – almost giving Bonta a certain finger reserved for simple communication. Fox News loved it. Bianco’s admission Monday that he is suspending his efforts is the first hint that even he might see that he has gone too far.

But Bianco’s hubris is consistent with the attitude of many so-called constitutional sheriffs, a national movement of some far-right elected officials with which Bianco has been associated, although he has never claimed outright affinity.

These extremist sheriffs falsely believe that they are above state and federal law and can decide for themselves what is and is not constitutional in their jurisdiction – and therefore what is legal and what is not.

Since around 2020, building on their success in ignoring pandemic restrictions, these sheriffs have delved deeper and deeper into the voter fraud movement that Trump loves so much, asserting increasing rights to investigate alleged fraud. Although their national organization does not release a list of its members, media reports and other tracking sources show that there are at least dozens of these like-minded lawmen across the country, likely keeping a close eye on Riverside County.

Some election experts now fear that if Bianco succeeds in court in retaining the right to vote, it will set a dangerous legal precedent that would allow other constitutional sheriffs to do the same in midterms. Only then would there be new, uncounted ballots – leaving these far-right sheriffs responsible for providing the results in place of trained and trusted election officials.

“What happens if the ballots haven’t yet been counted correctly by the right people and a sheriff decides to confiscate them? said Chad Dunn, co-founder of the Voting Rights Project at UCLA and the lawyer who successfully stopped Texas’ gerrymandering efforts, at least for now.

“Once the chain of custody … is broken, as is the case with these cases, you will never be able to count them in a way that you can gain reasonable public confidence,” Dunn said. “This jeopardizes the entire electoral process.”

Constitutional sheriffs would become the Trump deniers’ on-the-ground reinforcements to carry out their will, seizing ballots as they see fit and creating such a crisis of confidence that it is likely that we, the voters, will never accept the results, Republican or Democratic.

It could even give Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson a plausible reason — an ongoing fraud investigation — not to seat Democratic lawmakers, as he did with Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva last year after she won a special election.

The Voting Rights Project, alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, filed a lawsuit last week asking the state Supreme Court to uphold the laws that govern how ballots are processed in California — essentially protecting that chain of custody and making clear that sheriffs cannot ignore it and are not part of it.

“Under California law, they do not have the right to remove ballots from the registrar of voters, and they do not have, under California law, the right to count or manipulate ballots,” Barreto said. “There is no question that this violates California election law.”

Separately, Bonta’s office filed its own suit, with the issue of constitutional sheriffs at the forefront. Bonta is asking the courts to tell Bianco that he is not a law unto himself and that he actually answers to the state attorney general.

The question of whether sheriffs have a legal obligation to listen to the state’s top law enforcement official has long been one of Bonta’s battles — he discussed it with Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva in another public corruption fiasco against then-Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

I suspect Bianco will bring Bonta back to that simple one-finger communication, much like Villanueva did.

But it is high time that the state decides on the power of sheriffs, for the good of the country this time. The state Legislature has repeatedly attempted to clarify the issue, failing on its part.

Lawmakers could amend the state Constitution so that sheriffs are appointed instead of elected — the same as police chiefs. Oversight boards could then hire and fire them, just like other law enforcement officials.

Given the glaring absence of Parliament on this issue, we must leave it to the courts. It will probably be a long battle.

Meanwhile, Bianco takes care of his mustache. It became a national story, raising his profile throughout the MAGA-verse as a champion of election deniers everywhere.

Whether Bianco wins or loses these legal battles, whether he resumes his investigation or not, he has won the battle for attention – he is even leading the polls in the governor’s race, thanks to the 8 million Democrats who refuse to give up.

Riverside County, once as red as it can be, is increasingly purple, Barreto points out. Bianco’s tenure as elected sheriff might not last forever. His shot at the governor, despite the polls, is unlikely.

But maybe Fox News will be so impressed by his aggressive rants that he’ll get an offer. Maybe Trump, known for watching it, will like what he sees. So many possibilities thanks to advertising.

And so much real damage for democracy.