At debate, GOP sheriff accused of breaking law in seizing ballots

The leading Democratic candidate in California’s gubernatorial race accused the Republican sheriff running for governor of breaking the law when he seized more than 650,000 ballots in last year’s redistricting referendum.

The heated moment occurred during a televised CNN debate Tuesday night with Democratic and Republican candidates running to be California’s next governor. CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins, who moderated the debate, asked Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator running for the Republican nomination, whether he believed Bianco “took the right step” when he seized Riverside County ballots cast in the vote to redraw the state’s congressional map. 

Hilton hedged, responding that he’s “not going to weigh in on something that I don’t have the knowledge of the facts on.” 

But when Collins posed the question to Xavier Becerra, a Democratic candidate who was the former secretary of health and human services under President Joe Biden, he laid into both Hilton and Bianco. 

“First, Steve, read the law,” Becerra said. “In order to remove ballots, you have to follow a process. Sheriff Bianco didn’t follow it. If you’re not going to enforce the law as governor, then why would you want to sit in the office?”

In February, Bianco seized more than half a million ballots in California’s redistricting special election. Search warrants said he acted on claims from a local anti-voting activist group — who were inspired by a national anti-voting group known for spurring false claims of voter fraud. 

Bianco has a history of posting anti-voting rhetoric online. Democracy Docket exclusively reported on the Riverside sheriff’s extreme past social media comments promoting false claims that elections are rigged and conspiracy theories about noncitizen voters. 

Democrats have “created an environment where cheating and illegal voting is keeping them in office,” Bianco wrote in a LinkedIn comment. 

But Bianco’s history of extremism isn’t limited to social media comments: He’s been linked to the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers, a fact that came up during Tuesday’s debate. 

Democratic candidate Antonio Villaraigosa also called out Bianco for his ties to the extremist group, which played a key role in the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“I’m very proud of it,” Bianco replied. “And guess what? You’re going to swear an oath and you swore an oath, you should know what you were swearing. And be proud for defending it,” he said, seeming to misunderstand Villaraigosa’s accusation. 

Collins then asked Bianco to clarify that he was a “proud Oath Keeper… referring to the group,” and he doubled down. 

“Everybody that wants to, again, lie and get emotionally all spun up about the Oath Keeper organization,” Bianco said. “Before you do that, and I know none of you have, I want you to go read the mission statement, the Oath Keeper mission statement.”