Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco had no legal right to seize 650,000 ballots for his investigation into alleged fraud in last November’s election and must obey the orders of Attorney General Rob Bonta, California’s top law officer, to return them to the registrar, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.
Bianco, who was then running for governor as a Republican, said he confiscated the ballots with a judicial search warrant after a conservative group claimed there had been an overcount of local votes for Proposition 50, the redistricting ballot measure backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Approved by more than 64% of the voters statewide, Prop 50 redrew California’s congressional district lines with the goal of adding five House seats for Democrats, countering a similar gerrymandering by Republicans in Texas.
Bonta, a Democrat, immediately ordered Bianco to surrender the ballots and end his investigation, saying local sheriffs must follow the commands of the state’s attorney general. Bianco held onto the ballots, and reluctantly complied with a state Supreme Court order in April to halt the investigation, but promised to resume it if he won the court case…