California Supreme Court weighs ballot custody in Riverside election probe

The California Supreme Court will hear two cases arising from Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure of about 650,000 ballots during a post-election investigation, testing (1) whether seized ballots must be returned to election officials under state law, and (2) whether the attorney general has the authority to halt a sheriff-led probe, highlighting tensions between ballot safeguards and AG oversight in election administration.