Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco says he’d like to be our governor, but more and more, it looks to me like the real goal of a right-wing activist is just to become popular with MAGA.
That’s good. That’s right. Honestly, who in Southern California hasn’t dreamed of 15 minutes? He also has the cop-stache to play the role of a rogue Wild West lawyer.
But Bianco’s appeal to celebrity could help conservatives lose ground in US elections, and that’s a problem — one California needs to deal with quickly, before the midterms are plagued by his antics. There are two different issues at play here, both of which the federal courts will be asked to answer in the coming days – Bianco will apparently suspend what he calls the investigation until those cases bring some clarity, and hopefully he is reasonable.
First, are California sheriffs answerable to anyone, or are they the law unto themselves? Second, who in California can legally administer and legally count the votes, if state law really matters?
The fact that these two problems are coming now – together – is not an accident. Claims of fraud in the election of President Trump have been approaching this moment for years, mainly because of the knowledge of ordinary voters, but they are deliberately pushed by those who would like to see MAGA officials continue in power, even at the expense of democracy.
The real question being answered now in Riverside – which we should all be clear about – is, if the Republicans want to change the election results that don’t go their way in November, what are the nitty-gritty of doing that?
Bianco attempts an answer.
“This is beyond what Sheriff Bianco is doing,” said Matt Barreto, director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project. “… It shouldn’t happen. And again, it doesn’t matter if the Democrats win or the Republicans win, no sheriff should come in and take over or count the votes.”
By now, you may have heard that Bianco has obtained many secret, sealed search warrants from friendly judges that have allowed him to expel hundreds of thousands of votes from his district since the November 50 election.
Bianco says he has the right to take these votes and investigate as he sees fit – and it’s none of our business or anyone else’s, not even state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, who ordered Bianco to stop what he was doing until Bonta could review it.
Bianco ignored that order, instead racking up the majority of votes late last week — all without giving Bonta the finger for easy communication. Fox News liked it. Bianco’s admission on Monday that he is taking a break is the first sign that he too may realize he has gone too far.
But Bianco’s anger is in line with the attitude of many of the so-called constitutional sheriffs, a national organization of some of the most widely-voted lawyers with whom Bianco is associated, though he has never sought a close relationship.
These cruel suspects wrongly believe they are above both state and federal law, and get to decide for themselves what is constitutional and what is not in their jurisdictions – and thus what is legal and what is not.
Since around 2020, empowered by the success of defying pandemic restrictions, these sheriffs have delved deeper into the election fraud organization that Trump is so fond of, claiming increased powers to investigate allegations of fraud. Although their national association does not publish its membership list, the media and other tracking show there are at least a number of these like-minded lawyers across the country, who may be watching Riverside County closely.
Some election experts now worry that if Bianco succeeds in the courts in preserving voting rights, it will set a dangerous legal precedent that empowers other constitutional sheriffs to do the same in the midterms. Only then will there be new votes, which can be counted – leaving these court officials in charge of providing results instead of trained, trusted election officials.
“What happens if the votes have not been counted properly for the right people and the policeman decides he wants to go and take them?” said Chad Dunn, founder of UCLA’s Voting Rights Project and the trial attorney who successfully stopped the efforts in Texas, meanwhile.
“If the chain of custody … is broken, as these were, you’re never going to count them in a way that you’re going to be able to gain public trust,” Dunn said. “It puts the entire electoral process at risk.”
Constitutional officials will be in pieces for those who reject Trump’s election to use their will, take votes as they see fit and create a problem of self-confidence that it is possible that we voters will not accept the results, Republican or Democrat.
It may even give Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson a good reason – an ongoing fraud investigation – to not sit in the office of elected Democrats, entrenched as he did with Adelita Grijalva of Arizona last year after winning a special election.
The Voting Rights Project, along with former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, filed a lawsuit last week asking the state Supreme Court to uphold the rules governing how ballots are administered in California — essentially protecting that chain of custody and making it clear that sheriffs can’t ignore it and aren’t part of it.
“They don’t have, under California law, to take ballots from the Registrar of Voters, and they don’t have, under California law, to count or handle ballots,” Barreto said. “There is no question that it violates California election law.”
Separately, Bonta’s office took action of its own, with the constitutional police issue front and center. Bonta is asking the courts to tell Bianco that he is not his own law, and that he is actually responding to the government’s attorney.
The issue of whether sheriffs have a legal duty to obey the state’s top law enforcement officer has long been one of Bonta’s battles – he argued with then-LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva in another public scandal involving LA County Sheila Kuehl.
I think Bianco will bring Bonta back to that simple one-finger contact, as Villanueva did.
But it’s long past time for the state to decide how powerful the sheriffs are, for the good of the country at this time. The state Legislature has repeatedly kicked you to clarify this issue, their failure.
Legislatures can amend the state Constitution to allow sheriffs to be appointed instead of elected – the same goes for police chiefs. Then boards of directors can hire and fire them like other law enforcement officers.
Since the Legislature is struggling with this issue, we must rely on the courts. That could be a long battle.
Meanwhile, Bianco is looking after his moustache. This has become a national story, raising his profile throughout the MAGA-verse as a champion of election deniers everywhere.
Whether Bianco wins or loses these legal battles, reopens his investigation or not, he has won the battle for attention — he’s even polled the top in the gubernatorial race, thanks to 8 million Democrats who refuse to drop out.
Riverside County, once as red as it comes, is getting purple, Barreto notes. Bianco’s tenure as sheriff-elect may not last forever. His shot at the governor, despite the vote, is impossible.
But maybe Fox News will be so impressed with his brutal rhetoric that they’ll get an offer. Maybe Trump, who is known to watch it, will like what he sees. So many opportunities come from the community.
And there is real damage to democracy.
