California Sheriff Chad Bianco pauses election fraud investigation

March 31 (UPI) — Riverside County, Calif., Sheriff Chad Bianco said Sunday that his election fraud investigation is paused because of legal challenges by the state’s attorney general.

Bianco recently seized more than 650,000 ballots from a state special election from last year that allowed the state to redistrict to gain five congressional seats. He said he was investigating allegations by an activist group that alleged the reported tallies don’t match the ballots.

Since Bianco’s investigation began, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has worked to stop him and said Bianco was acting illegally in taking the ballots from the county registrar.

“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 said in a statement. “We are evaluating next steps to ensure a swift and appropriate resolution to this matter.”

A California court denied Bonta’s appeal to stop the investigation last week but Bonta clarified that the denial was based on court jurisdiction.

Bianco is running for governor of California.

CBS Los Angeles asked Bianco’s office for comment, and the department sent a statement Saturday morning.

“Shame on you, the media, for believing an attorney general with a history of lying, then repeating his lies. Shame on you for not watching or paying attention to our press conference,” the statement said. “This is simple, we are counting ballots, not yes and no votes. This is not a recount, it is a count of ballots plain and simple. You, the media, are responsible for the ‘media circus’ with clickbait headlines and misleading twisted sensationalism. The only question you should be asking is why are Democrat politicians fighting this investigation so hard. It makes no sense.”

The University of California Los Angeles Voting Rights Project filed a petition with the California Supreme Court last week saying Bianco’s ballot seizure violated state law on the handling of election materials.

“These new developments make an already serious situation even more alarming,” Sonni Waknin, senior voting rights attorney of the VRP, said in a statement. “California law is very clear. Election materials are to remain in the custody of election officials and be handled through established public processes. The reported seizure of additional boxes of election materials, without the appointment of a special master, only deepens the urgency of judicial intervention.”

The petition argues that Bianco has no power over ballots.

“Nowhere in the California Election Code does it permit ballots to be handled or counted by elected Sheriffs and whomever said Sheriff may appoint. Every day that Bianco is permitted to handle election materials, outside the view of the public and in violation of law, California voters suffer irreparable harm,” the UCLA petition said.

Bianco initially said he would give the materials to a special master, but none has been appointed.

Bonta has argued that the Bianco, despite having a search warrant, hasn’t identified a crime.

“The Sheriff has not identified any particular crime that may have been committed by anyone — a necessary predicate to obtain a criminal search warrant,” Bonta’s office said in a statement. “In his own words, this investigation is ‘just as much to prove the election is accurate as it is to show otherwise.’ There is a robust civil process, overseen by state and local elections officials, to request a recount or challenge the results of an election. That process has not been invoked here.”