Michael Clark

Chad Bianco is the Riverside County Sheriff and a leading Republican candidate for governor of California. He seized 650,000 ballots from a November special election on Proposition 50 — the measure that redrew California's congressional districts to favor Democrats. The triggering complaint came from the Riverside Election Integrity Team, a citizen group. The county registrar already reviewed their findings and said the group misinterpreted how votes are counted. The documented variance county officials acknowledge is 103 votes — 0.016 percent. Bianco claims the real discrepancy is 45,000 votes. Bianco obtained judge-signed search warrants, but the California Attorney General has raised serious concerns that the warrant affidavits omitted material facts and may not have established probable cause. Bianco stonewalled the AG's document requests. A court has appointed a special master to oversee the count. A sheriff running for governor using law enforcement authority to seize ballots from an election result he has direct political and electoral interest in challenging — based on a citizen group complaint the registrar already debunked — is not a neutral fact-finding mission. The conflict of interest does not disappear because a warrant was issued.