By admin 
A Southern California sheriff’s seizure of 650,000 ballots cast in last year’s Congressional redistricting election was illegal, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday, the latest chapter in a bizarre legal saga with roots in election denialism as well as the state’s hotly contested gubernatorial primary.
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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who took about 1,000 boxes of ballots from local elections officials after a citizens group claimed there were discrepancies in the number of votes cast, must return the ballots, the justices wrote in a 45-page opinion.
Bianco also broke the law when he disregarded an order from California Attorney General Rob Bonta to explain his purposes in taking the ballots and pause his investigation, the court wrote in a separate ruling.
“We hold that the seizure of the ballots was unlawful,” Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero wrote. “California law long has recognized that voted ballots require special care and handling to safeguard them from alteration or tampering.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom welcomed the rulings, pointing to a package of laws signed this month that create felony penalties for interfering with California elections.
“People deserve to know their ballot is counted and secure, and in California we will do everything we can to protect that constitutional right,” Newsom said.
Bianco, who was then running for governor as a Republican, seized the ballots in February, despite the insistence by local elections officials that the citizens group was misunderstood the process and was mistaken. He obtained a warrant from a judge who had been a political ally.
Bianco said he was conducted a legitimate criminal investigation. But Democrats and voting rights advocates characterized the seizure as a political stunt.
Bonta ordered the sheriff to pause his investigation, but Bianco declined to do so. He and a team opened the ballots and began to count them.
Two lawsuits swiftly followed.
The UCLA Voting Rights Project filed a claim directly with the high court on behalf of four Riverside County voters who said the seizure violated laws meant to protect the privacy and integrity of ballots. Listed among the attorneys on the lawsuit was gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, who has long advised the group.
Bonta, the state’s top law enforcement officer, also filed suit, asking the court to affirm his authority over local sheriffs.
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But Bianco stood his ground, and in oral arguments before the court his attorney urged the justices not to take literally California’s law stating that “in no event shall the package or its contents be taken from the custody of the elections official.”
Attorney Bradley Hertz also argued that language in the state constitution giving the attorney general “direct supervision” over district attorneys and sheriffs should not apply.
But on Thursday, the justices made it clear that they disagreed.
“We do not regard this as a plausible interpretation,” Guerrero wrote for the majority, referring to Bianco’s argument that Bonta did not have supervisory authority over his work.
The court ordered Bianco to immediately stop work on his investigation into the alleged discrepancy and return the ballots to Riverside County elections officials. The justices ordered him to preserve all other records in the case and provide Bonta with the information he had requested after the seizure.
Both rulings were welcomed by Bonta.
“Election fraud can and should be investigated,” the attorney general said Thursday. “But misuse of criminal investigative tools — without any evidence that a crime was committed — needlessly undermines trust in our elections system and in law enforcement.”
Bianco, he said, ignored a legitimate request for information, made under extraordinary circumstances.
“After the Sheriff took the extraordinary step of obtaining warrants to seize control over voted ballots, I made a modest request to him: pause your investigation, preserve all evidence, and provide the information needed for my office to review the allegations,” Bonta said. “Instead, Sheriff Bianco pressed forward with the seizure of hundreds of thousands of ballots.”
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said she would work with Bianco’s office to coordinate the return of the ballots to Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco.
She vowed to work with the legislature and the courts to stop what she views as election interference.
“Today’s rulings stand decisively on the side of elections officials and voters and are a much-needed reaffirmation of the rule of law during a time when we are facing increased attacks on our elections,” Weber said.
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