Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is a leading Republican candidate for governor, said Monday that he had paused his controversial investigation into unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, facing mounting legal challenges and ethical concerns.
In a statement Monday, Bianco said the probe was “on hold because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings.”
It was a major reversal for the outspoken Trump supporter, who had defended the investigation — and broadening its scope — just last week. Bianco’s employees have seized more than 650,000 ballotscast in Riverside County during last November’s election.
Bianco didn’t provide any other comment beyond the media statement or say if and when the probe may be restarted.
Since it kicked off, Bianco’s investigation has drawn widespread concern from election watchdogs and state law enforcement officials, including California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. The state’s top attorney directed the sheriff to halt his investigation, and has since filed a series of legal challenges asking for judicial intervention to ensure Bianco does so.
In a state Supreme Court petition filed Friday, Bonta called the case an “unprecedented constitutional emergency” and called on the court to order an immediate stay on Bianco’s investigation.
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office on Monday acknowledged that Bianco said he would stop the probe, but said the office remains focused on “what the sheriff does, not what he says.”
“We’re continuing to proceed in the California Supreme Court and Riverside [County] Superior Court to secure compliance with our directives and the return of these ballots” to the Riverside Registrar of Voters, the spokesperson said in statement.
In his lawsuit, Bonta argued that Bianco failed to identify a specific crime in the warrants to justify seizing the ballots. The suit also alleges that “the sheriff’s misguided investigation threatens to sow distrust and jeopardize public confidence in the upcoming primary and general elections, not just in Riverside County but around the state.”
But gubernatorial candidate has previously pointed out that his department received warrants “approved and signed by a judge” to seize the elections materials.
He has described the investigation as necessary “to determine the validity of the allegations of election fraud,” which were raised by a local citizens group that did its own audit, claiming the county’s tally was falsely inflated by more than 45,000 votes. County election officials have emphatically rejected those claims.
The ballots in question are from the November election for Proposition 50, which temporarily redrew the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats in response to partisan redistricting in Republican states, including Texas.
The UCLA Voting Rights Project has also filed a petition to the California Supreme Court, arguing that all ballots must remain in the custody of the county registrar of voters under state law.
Bonta has also raised privacy concerns about the ballots leaving the custody of the registrar of voters, saying that the vote-by-mail ballots “contain confidential information, particularly voter signatures, and are strictly protected from disclosure by California law.”
Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this report.
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