{"id":71117,"date":"2026-04-07T17:05:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/a-blatant-political-ploy-california-sheriffs-seizure-of-referendum-ballots-sets-off-alarm-bells\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T17:05:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:05:44","slug":"a-blatant-political-ploy-california-sheriffs-seizure-of-referendum-ballots-sets-off-alarm-bells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/a-blatant-political-ploy-california-sheriffs-seizure-of-referendum-ballots-sets-off-alarm-bells\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A blatant political ploy\u2019: California sheriff\u2019s seizure of referendum ballots sets off alarm bells"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chad Bianco of Riverside county obtained warrants to seize ballots cast for state\u2019s successful redistricting referendum<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2026\/feb\/17\/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&amp;utm_campaign=BN22326&amp;utm_content=signup&amp;utm_term=standfirst&amp;utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB\">Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A California sheriff\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/mar\/23\/california-sheriff-election-ballots-seized\">decision to seize about 650,000 ballots<\/a> based on specious allegations of fraud has raised considerable alarm bells that similar efforts to undermine confidence in the electoral system could materialize this fall.<\/p>\n<p>The episode underscores how sheriffs and other officials can transform shoddy claims about voter fraud into law enforcement actions. Executing a warrant to seize ballots disrupts the chain of custody that is critical to maintaining ballot integrity, and also plants the idea in the public\u2019s mind that a crime has occurred.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/apr\/07\/chad-bianco-sheriff-california-ballot-seizure-prop-50\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chad Bianco of Riverside county obtained warrants to seize ballots cast for state\u2019s successful redistricting referendum Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox A California sheriff\u2019s decision to seize about 650,000 ballots based on specious allegations of fraud has raised considerable alarm bells that similar efforts to &#8230; <a title=\"\u2018A blatant political ploy\u2019: California sheriff\u2019s seizure of referendum ballots sets off alarm bells\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/07\/a-blatant-political-ploy-california-sheriffs-seizure-of-referendum-ballots-sets-off-alarm-bells\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about \u2018A blatant political ploy\u2019: California sheriff\u2019s seizure of referendum ballots sets off alarm bells\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}