Sheriff Seizes Ballots, Sparks Legal Battle

0:00It's April 22nd. This is California News Today, your AI-powered local news. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco made headlines by seizing 650,000 ballots from the local registrar's office back in March. This unprecedented move came after years of pressure from fringe election integrity groups, pushing claims of widespread voter fraud. Emails reveal Bianco launched probes based on their thin evidence, like complaints about rigged voting machines and ballot miscounts, despite his own. Investigators finding nothing. It all kicked off in spring of 2022, when activists Shelby Bunch started railing against officials at county hearings, repping, uh, secessionist group called New California. Her tips led to an initial investigation that wrapped up with no crime found, but she kept emailing Bianco directly. Then folks from the constitutional sheriff movement jumped in, urging him to dig deeper as the ultimate local law enforcer. Bianco, a self-proclaimed constitutional sheriff, doubted some wilder claims, like supervisors

1:03tied to drug cartels, but pressed on anyway, a new crew, the Riverside Election Integrity team, audited pass votes, and claimed thousands more ballots counted than received. Officials debunked it as a data mixup, but the sheriff's team used their findings to snag a secret warrant from a sympathetic judge. Many general Rob Bonta hid back hard, demanding Bianco pause and return the ballots, citing no probable cause. Bianco blew it off, held a press conference blasting Bonta, and started counting anyway. Now it's a full-blown legal clash in California Supreme Court, testing who really calls the shots locally. With Riverside handling ballots for a swing congressional district that could tip House control this November, this mess risks chaos in tight races. broader worries loom as similar sheriff-led probes pop up nationwide, fueled by old election denial networks, potentially messing with democracy on a bigger scale.