FILE – Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks at a news conference in Lake Elsinore, Calif., Feb. 7, 2023, as officials announced that the closure of poppy fields at Walker Canyon until the wildflower bloom subsides. (Watchara Phomicinda/The Orange County Register via AP, File)

Four voters have filed a lawsuit with the California Supreme Court demanding a GOP sheriff running for governor return hundreds of thousands of ballots cast in last year’s redistricting referendum, accusing him of violating state election laws that require the ballots to remain in the custody of election officials.

The California Attorney General’s office filed a separate lawsuit Thursday in county superior court, arguing that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco obtained warrants lacking probable cause and began conducting an “amateur and dubious” recount of the more than 650,000 votes. 

The office previously filed in state appellate court, which denied the emergency petition and said the matter should be filed in superior court. A hearing in the second suit is scheduled for Friday morning. 

Bianco, who Democracy Docket found has repeatedly pushed extreme anti-voting rhetoric online, is currently running for governor of California as a Republican. He obtained criminal search warrants backing the ballot seizures from Superior Court Judge Jay Kiel. He and the judge had previously endorsed each other for election. 

Bianco’s investigation into the redistricting vote also likely drew inspiration from President Donald Trump’s attack on fair elections. The president has previously called for a “criminal review” of the redistricting vote Bianco’s seizure of election records also comes just weeks after the FBI’s recent conspiracy-fueled Georgia election hub raid and a subsequent subpoena of election-related records in Arizona. 

Riverside County voters are now accusing Bianco of violating state law by improperly seizing their ballots and asking a court to “immediately order the protection of these election materials.” Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco, who is responsible for the security of ballots, is also named as a defendant.

“Nowhere in the California Election Code does it permit ballots to be handled or counted by elected Sheriffs and whomever said Sheriff may appoint. Every day that Bianco is permitted to handle election materials, outside the view of the public and in violation of law, California voters suffer irreparable harm,” the filing stated.

The suit was filed Wednesday by the UCLA Voting Rights Project and former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on behalf of four voters. 

California law prohibits ballots from being taken from the custody of election officials, even during a criminal investigation, the filing argued. 

“Regardless, Bianco and his office started to count the ballots that they had seized using Riverside County Sheriff’s department staff and outside the view of the public,” the petitioners stated, going on to blast Bianco for dodging public oversight by initiating “a sealed criminal proceeding against unknown alleged offenders.” 

“Whatever it is that Bianco has undertaken is illegal, ultra vires, and violates too many provisions of California Election Law to list,” the filing stated. 

The plaintiffs also slammed Tinoco, the voter registrar, for facilitating the transfer of ballots into Bianco’s custody “without exhausting legal remedies against the warrants.”  

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) criticized Bianco in court filings for ignoring instructions to stand down the investigation while the attorney general’s office looked into the allegations, which are based on what is likely a volunteer group’s misunderstanding of raw election data. 

Bianco is being represented by outside counsel — California-based Tyler Law, a firm that says it represents “religious organizations, businesses & individuals” — rather than the county, which could indicate that county officials aren’t backing the investigation. 

Riverside County Supervisor Jose Medina, one of five members of the county’s governing body, has demanded Bianco return the ballots, issuing a statement Monday advising Bianco to “find another way to campaign for Governor of the State of California other than the stunt we all witnessed.”