California Supreme Court rules sheriff must return seized ballots | Patrick Marley/The Washington Post
The California Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a sheriff to return more than 650,000 ballots he seized from election officials, finding that he lacked the authority to review them based on a thin allegation of fraud. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco (R) impounded the ballots after voters weighed in last year on a measure to redraw the state’s congressional map and give Democrats an opportunity to capture five more House seats. The measure passed by 56 percent in Riverside County and 64 percent statewide. Bianco was reacting to a review of public records by the citizens group Riverside Election Integrity Team, which claimed the county had counted 46,000 more ballots than it had received. The county’s registrar of voters, Art Tinoco, has said the group misinterpreted county data. His office’s review found the county counted 657,322 ballots. That is 103 votes more than the number of people recorded as having voted, a much smaller discrepancy that is in line with typical election errors. Read Article
