California sheriff seizes more ballot materials in defiance of state officials

A Republican sheriff in California has confiscated additional ballot materials from a special election, escalating his conflict with state lawmakers who say he is conducting a baseless investigation into claims of voter fraud.On Tuesday, Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff who is running for governor, was already at the center of a legal controversy after seizing 650,000 ballots from last year’s special election. Earlier this week he ordered his office to seize 426 additional boxes of ballot materials as part of the alleged criminal investigation, prompting criticism from lawmakers including Rob Bonta, California’s Democratic attorney general.Bianco’s ballot seizures have triggered several lawsuits against him, including one filed with the California-supreme-court" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="15434" data-entity-type="organization">California Supreme Court by voters represented by the UCLA Voting Rights Project. The lawsuit seeks to block his recount of last year’s vote on Proposition 50, a measure to redraw California’s congressional districts in ways that favored Democrats.Prop 50 was introduced by Gavin Newsom in response to Donald Trump’s efforts to gerrymander additional Republican seats in red states, and was passed overwhelmingly by voters last November.The sheriff’s criminal investigation into alleged voter fraud came when a local group, the Riverside Election Integrity Team, claimed there was a difference of 45,896 votes between the official results and the handwritten counts of ballots. However, according to state officials, the actual difference was only 103 votes.Bonta has rejected the claims, saying: “There is no indication, anywhere in the United States, of widespread voter fraud … Counts, recounts, hand counts, audits, and court cases all support this.”On Monday, Bonta filed a separate lawsuit against the sheriff, who is one of two Republicans running in the state’s gubernatorial primary which includes over a half dozen Democratic candidates.In his lawsuit, Bonta accused Bianco of having “initiated a sweeping and unprecedented criminal investigation into claimed discrepancies between the number of votes that were cast and the number of votes that were counted” but provided “facially insufficient” evidence to obtain and serve search warrants at the registrar of voters.According to Bonta’s lawsuit, his office raised serious concerns about whether the search warrants obtained by Bianco were legally valid and warned that a weak investigation could undermine public trust in election oversight. He instructed the sheriff to pause the investigation and turn over case records so the state could determine next steps.“Despite repeatedly representing that he would comply, sheriff Bianco willfully violated the attorney general’s directives and continued to abuse the criminal process,” the lawsuit said.Bonta added that Bianco’s ballot seizures are “unprecedented in state history”.Shirley Weber, California’s secretary of state, also condemned Bianco’s actions, saying last week: “The Riverside County sheriff’s office has taken actions based on allegations that lack credible evidence and risk undermining public confidence in our elections.”“The sheriff’s assertion that his deputies know how to count is admirable. The fact remains that he and his deputies are not election officials, and they do not have expertise in election administration,” Weber added.On Tuesday, a three-judge panel denied Bonta’s bid to stop Bianco’s ballot recount, stating that the state attorney general should apply with a lower court.Meanwhile, in the lawsuit filed against Bianco by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, voters have warned: “Every day the sheriff fails to comply with the attorney general’s directives, the attorney general is injured in his ability to carry out his duties as the state’s chief law officer.”They have called on the state’s supreme court to “issue an immediate stay of the sheriff’s investigation”.Bianco has previously promoted anti-voting rhetoric online, according to an investigation by Democracy Docket.The outlet reported that comments apparently made by Bianco on his LinkedIn included: “That’s why some people should never be allowed to vote,” and that Democrats “have created an environment where cheating and illegal voting is keeping them in office”, the outlet reported.Another comment read: “Why would they be scared if they aren’t illegal? Illegals shouldn’t be voting!”Bianco’s office has defended his actions, saying in a statement on Friday: “The attorney general’s office has taken massive steps, at taxpayers’ expense, to prevent a lawful investigation from occurring.”“This is exactly why Californians are sick and tired of the California government; it is corrupt and no longer working in the best interests of Californians,” it added.