Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said Sunday that his election fraud investigation into the Proposition 50 Special Election last fall has come to a halt due to legal challenges from the California attorney general.
Earlier in March, Bianco, who is running for governor, seized more than 611,000 ballots from the special election in which voters approved a redistricting measure that shifted five of California’s Republican-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to be more favorable to Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections. He says a citizens group pointed out a 45,000-ballot discrepancy between the number of votes that were counted and the number of votes that were cast.
“This investigation is simple: Physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes reported,” Bianco said during a press conference after the ballots were seized.
In the weeks after Bianco’s investigation began, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has made several efforts to stop him, saying it was illegal for him to take ballots from the Riverside County Registrar and begin a recount and that Bianco hasn’t identified any crimes.
“The facts have not changed. The Riverside County Sheriff continues to directly defy the Attorney General’s instructions, in violation of the California Constitution and state law,” Bonta’s office wrote in a statement. “We are evaluating next steps to ensure a swift and appropriate resolution to this matter.”
The UCLA Voting Rights Project also filed a petition with the California Supreme Court last week, arguing that the ballot seizure violated state law on the handling of election materials.
Despite a California court denying Bonta’s appeal to halt the investigation last week, it appears that his efforts have had an effect, after Bianco announced the indefinite delay on Sunday.
“We are on hold because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings,” Bianco said in a statement shared with CBS News L.A.
Luis Alvarado, a Republican political analyst, says Bianco has political motivations of his own.
“What Sheriff Bianco is doing is absolutely unprecedented,” Alvarado said. “No other sheriff has ever done anything like this in California. And, if any other sheriff were to embark in something like this, he would not do it alone. He would have the attorneys, city attorneys, state attorneys be a part of this whole process. The county registrar of voters would be the front line standing next to him. But, he’s running for governor, and you have to understand that when you’re running for governor, you have to fight to get on TV and get your name elected.”
Bianco was unavailable for an interview when asked by CBS LA in the days following the ballot seizure. During an appearance on Lindell TV, he questioned Bonta’s reasoning for trying to stop his investigation.
“You would have thought the world was ending, and every single Democrat leader in California is now doing everything they can to prevent this count from happening and it really makes you question: why?” Bianco said during the television appearance.
Since the ballot seizure, local election officials in Riverside County have debunked the allegations of irregularities by saying that the citizens group’s numbers were based on raw data that could have included unsigned ballots. Political experts have also pointed out that Proposition 50 passed with a wide margin, with 64% of of voters approving it, so the investigation wouldn’t have any impact on the results.
Alvarado said the investigation could impact the gubernatorial race, however, despite Bianco stating that the investigation has “absolutely nothing” to do with his campaign.
“The bad thing is, when you try to introduce a doubt about the electoral process, people sometimes are afraid to come out and vote,” Alvarado said. “That is actually a fight against democracy.”
CBS News L.A. has reached out to Bonta’s office for comment on Bianco’s statement but has not yet heard back.
A hearing is set for Monday morning as Bonta’s petition for the Riverside County Superior Court to stop the investigation is reviewed.