The California Department of Justice (DOJ) today filed a petition with the Riverside County Superior Court in an effort to temporarily halt gubernatorial candidate Sheriff Chad Bianco’s investigation into alleged election irregularities in last November’s special statewide election, first reported by The Riverside Record, pending a review by Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The DOJ, in an email to The Record, said there was a hearing set for tomorrow morning in front of Judge Eric Keen on the ex parte application requesting an expedited briefing schedule.
The news of Bonta’s latest petition came just two days after the appellate court denied a Monday petition, stating that the DOJ had failed to demonstrate why the department chose to file at the appellate level instead of in the superior court.
The petition, while very similar in concept, is not exactly the same as the petition filed in the appellate court, according to the DOJ.
The original petition asked the court to issue an immediate order temporarily stopping Bianco’s investigation, including the sheriff’s ballot recount. It also asked the court to set an expedited briefing schedule and after the parties have filed briefs, issue a permanent order requiring the sheriff to comply with the Attorney General’s directives in connection with the investigation, and requiring the Riverside County Superior Court to cancel the March 19 warrant as legally insufficient or, alternatively, staying further execution of the March 19 warrant and any related orders pending review by Bonta’s office.
The new filing asks that the court direct the sheriff and his department to comply with the Attorney General’s directives, including pausing the investigation and providing the department with previously requested documents. It also asks that the court mandate Bianco and his department comply with any future directives from the DOJ and any further order the court deems “just and proper.”
The filing also revealed that on March 24 Bianco seized an additional 426 boxes of ballot materials from the ROV, completing the execution of all three search warrants obtained to date. An amended filing also said the March 19 warrant “did not in fact order a recount or special master; it merely authorized the seizure of the same materials as two prior search warrants did, but with an enhanced (and still deficient) explanation of probable cause.”
The petition was filed the same day the UCLA Voting Rights Project announced its petition filed with the California Supreme Court on behalf of four Riverside County voters: Riverside Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes who is running for Assembly District 58, Indio Councilmember Oscar Ortiz who is running for Assembly District 36, Rebecca Robinson and Nathan Kempe, who is the operations director of the nonprofit Starting Over Strong, which has been pushing for increased sheriff accountability in the county.
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“What we asked the California Supreme Court to do is assert their original jurisdiction over our writ of mandate,” Sonni Waknin, a senior staff attorney with the UCLA Voting Rights Project, said in an interview with The Record. “A case of original jurisdiction means that the court will decide whether it’s a case of statewide importance, which is what we argue in the petition and accompanying memorandum.”
The case contends that ballots are required by law to remain in the custody of the ROV and cannot be handled, canvassed or counted by anyone outside the official elections staff.
If the court finds in favor of the petition, Waknin said Bianco and Riverside County Registrar of Voters (ROV) Art Tinoco would have to respond and a briefing schedule would be set. She said the group was asking that the case be expedited.
The writ asks the court to order Bianco to “return all seized ballots to their rightful place at the Riverside County Registrar of Voters Office.”
Waknin said the court would either agree to grant original jurisdiction, hear the mandate, ask for briefing, potentially hear oral arguments and come to an opinion or, what the group is asking, issue an order saying the ballots have to remain in the custody of the ROV.
If the court declines to hear the petition, the organization would have to go back and file in a superior court — either in Sacramento or Riverside.
VRP Senior Voting Rights Advisor and gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, who is also former California Attorney General, called Bianco’s seizure “reckless” and in violation of California election law.
“Our election laws are clear: voter ballots are sacred and must be protected from tampering,” he said in a statement. “Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is supposed to enforce the law, not break it.”
The filings are the latest challenges to Bianco’s ongoing investigation into alleged election irregularities as reported by a group of residents who call themselves the Riverside Election Integrity Team.
According to the group, which presented the findings at a February 10 workshop, there were 611,426 ballots cast and 657,322 ballots counted, a difference of 45,896.
Tinoco, at the same workshop, said the actual difference between the number of ballots cast and ballots counted was 103 based on information from the county’s Election Information Management System and the Liberty Vote System, which was reported to the California Secretary of State’s Office and confirmed by The Record.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Nathan Kempe is the operations director of the nonprofit Starting Over Strong, not Starting Over, Inc. While the two are sister organizations, they are not the same. The Record regrets this error.
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