California’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco unlawfully seized about 650,000 ballots in a statewide redistricting referendum and ordered them returned to election officials. He may not handle them further except to comply with the order.
Bianco said he seized the ballots to count them and compare the tally with recorded vote totals, citing a need to investigate irregularities. The referendum proposed new congressional districts and passed by more than 3.3 million votes statewide, including a margin of about 80,000 in Riverside County.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said Bianco would face legal consequences and said his office had asked the sheriff to pause the investigation, preserve evidence and provide information for review. Bianco had not publicly responded. Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the ruling and said legislation he signed the previous week aims to prevent a repeat.
