Court says Chad Bianco’s conduct unlawful and seizure of ballots ‘creates substantial risk to election integrity’

California Republican sheriff Chad Bianco must return more than 650,000 ballots his department confiscated earlier this year in an unprecedented move that violated election law, a state supreme court ruled on Thursday.

“Allowing law enforcement unfettered access to ballots, or the ability to handle and count them in secret, based on unregulated protocols, itself creates a substantial risk to election integrity,” chief justice Patricia Guerrero wrote in a Thursday opinion.