California sheriff who seized ballots has ties to radical ‘constitutional sheriffs’ movement

The California sheriff who last month seized over 650,000 ballots has ties to a movement of radical right-wing local enforcement officials that has embraced election denialism and conspiracism.

To justify the seizure, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has cited claims by right-wing activists that there was a 45,896 discrepancy in ballots counted by the county in the state’s special election last year. In that contest, voters overwhelmingly approved. a new Democratic-backed congressional map.

County Registrar Art Tinoco has produced records that contradict those claims, finding a discrepancy of only 103 votes, which Tinoco has attributed to human error. And California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit to halt Bianco’s probe.

But Bianco, a Republican who is running for governor, has continued to push the issue. And his background may help explain why. 

Bianco was a member of the Oath Keepers, the far-right militia group involved with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He also has close ties to the “constitutional sheriff” movement, which encourages elected county sheriffs to support a variety of far-right ideas that are now incorporated into MAGA, including spreading the myth of widespread voter fraud. Indeed, Bianco’s dangerous voting probe is the latest sign that the right-wing sheriff movement could play a key role this fall in President Donald Trump’s push to undermine fair elections. 

Democracy Docket revealed Wednesday that Bianco also has posted extreme anti-voting rhetoric online, including declaring that “some people should never be allowed to vote.” And he recently told the San Francisco Chronicle: “We absolutely know that illegal aliens are voting. … There’s no point in us even having a conversation again.” 

Bianco was also one of dozens of sheriffs who participated in a “training” offered by the Claremont Institute, and was named by Claremont as a “Sheriff of the Year” for being a “tireless defender of America and her founding principles.” 

Claremont is a key nerve center of the far-right, providing intellectual cover for many of MAGA’s most dehumanizing and anti-democratic policies, including ending birthright citizenship and the voter fraud myth. John Eastman, who founded a right-wing law firm within Claremont, was disbarred in California after playing a key role in the events that led to January 6.

The far-right sheriffs movement that Bianco appears steeped in has been central to MAGA’s push to undermine elections. The same false ideas about voter fraud that helped spur January 6 have percolated for years among local officials across the country, largely promoted by county sheriffs. One group known as the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is run by an ex-sheriff named Richard Mack, who subscribes to the Great Replacement Theory and has long touted claims that elections are “rigged,” alongside a cure to protect you from 5G. 

The far-right sheriffs movement that Bianco appears steeped in has been central to MAGA’s push to undermine elections.

As I wrote in my book “The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy,” county sheriffs are elected officials with broad and unreviewed powers — sometimes giving them leeway to open politically-motivated criminal investigations. Sheriffs are also difficult to remove from office and can resist oversight through their political influence. This makes the office a perfect place for aspiring right-wing fame-seekers to marinate in conspiracies and get a taste for power.

Across the country, county sheriffs have become avatars of the far-right, flocking to the MAGA movement and advertising many of the right wing’s most pernicious conspiracies. These include anti-vax propaganda, opposition to trans students playing on sports teams, and even QAnon and antisemitic conspiracies. One rural Michigan county sheriff confiscated voting machines after the 2020 election for the sole purpose of attempting to take them apart to locate voter fraud. He was thwarted by other local officials.

Recently, Steve Bannon claimed that the Trump administration’s deployment of ICE agents to various airports across the country was a “testing ground” for the use of ICE agents during elections. 

But Bianco’s faux “investigation” signals an even more dire problem: Voter fraud lies have infected local law enforcement agencies, who now feel emboldened to act upon vague tips from politically-motivated groups. The federal government may not have enough agents to monitor every polling location in the country, but every county has a sheriff. And many of them have the same ideology as Bianco.

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Jessica Pishko is an independent journalist and lawyer who focuses on how the criminal justice system and law enforcement intersect with political power. As a Democracy Docket contributor, Jessica writes about the criminalization of elections and how sheriffs in particular have become a growing threat to democracy.