California Supreme Court orders seized ballots returned in Riverside County case

Por Jeremy B. White — POLITICO – TOP Stories

The California Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a Southern California sheriff to return hundreds of thousands of ballots he had seized in a probe of alleged voting improprieties, siding with Democrats in a case that highlighted larger concerns about election interference.

In a unanimous decision, the high court said Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco had unlawfully taken custody of some 650,000 ballots cast in a 2025 special election. A second unanimous ruling affirmed Attorney General Rob Bonta’s authority to wield oversight over county sheriffs after Bonta sued to halt Bianco’s probe.

“For our democracy to flourish, our elections must be conducted in accordance with the law,” Justice Goodwin Liu wrote in a concurring opinion, noting the “seriousness of the violation” that implicated “the most precious documents of the citizenry in a democracy: their votes.”

The sheriff blasted the ruling as a dangerous overreach, echoing the California State Sheriff’s Association, which had warned in a brief against curtailing the independence of local law enforcement. Bonta has repeatedly referred to Bianco as a “rogue sheriff.”

“The AG now has unchecked power over any investigation in the state of California,” Bianco wrote in a fundraising email. “I will obey the writs. I will not obey the message behind them — that local law enforcement works for Sacramento, not for the people who elected us.”

The legal dispute began earlier this year after Bianco, a Republican who was running for governor, seized the ballots in response to a local watchdog group alleging discrepancies in how county officials tallied votes in a special election for a gerrymandering ballot initiative. Bianco defied Bonta’s repeated warnings to continue his investigation.

That standoff quickly took on national resonance, with Democrats linking Bianco’s actions to the possibility that President Donald Trump would seek to interfere with or dispute the 2026 election. It drew in top California figures like Bonta and Xavier Becerra, the Democratic frontrunner for governor who was part of the team suing to recover the ballots.

Bonta underscored that parallel on Thursday, telling reporters that “with Trump, we’re seeing unprecedented attacks on our election integrity” and referencing his office’s successful challenge to Trump’s bid to curtail mail balloting. He said his office has planned for a range of scenarios that includes the White House deploying federal troops or law enforcement to polling places.

“Whether it’s a sheriff in Riverside or the president of the United States, we won’t let anyone take away Californians’ voice in our democracy,” Bonta said. “Come November, we’re ready for whatever comes our way.”

Sacramento has responded to those risks by fortifying California’s laws around election interference. Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed legislation making it a felony to seize election materials before results are certified and to interfere with mail ballot delivery.

“Today’s ruling affirms that in California we will defend democracy — using every branch of government,” Newsom said in a statement on Thursday. “And the new laws I signed just last week add new protections so attacks like this cannot happen again.”

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories