Judge Denies Ballot Preservation Case; Gives one week for appeal

Today was a frustrating day in our fight for Election Justice in Riverside County.

Our Election Accountability Project went to court today to defend something that should not be controversial:

We want the ballots preserved long enough to determine whether the numbers actually reconcile.

That’s it. We are not asking to change an election. We are not asking to throw out ballots. We are not asking to overturn certified results. We are asking to preserve the paper ballots so they can be counted and the discrepancies we have identified can be investigated.

And today, the Riverside County Registrar of Voters asked the court to lift the order preventing those ballots from being destroyed. And the judge agreed.

Why are we fighting to preserve these ballots?

Because our team conducted audits and found discrepancies that we believe warrant investigation. Those ballots and the information we uncovered are also at the heart of the investigation Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has been attempting to pursue.

Why is there so much resistance to simply preserving the evidence?

If everything reconciles, then count the ballots.

If the numbers are correct, then the paper will confirm it.

If there is an explanation for the discrepancies, then let the evidence provide that explanation.

But once the ballots are destroyed, the evidence is gone. Maybe that's the goal.

The timing was not invented for drama. Federal and state retention for the 2024 federal-candidate election is 22 months. The 2025 special election, with no candidates on the ballot, had a six-month window that already expired in May; those materials have existed this long in significant part because of other court orders tied to the separate Sheriff’s seizure litigation still pending at the California Supreme Court. A preservation order in this case was meant to keep the records intact no matter how that high-court fight ends.

Today’s hearing

We filed our request for a temporary restraining order before the deadline to preserve the 2024 and 2025 ballots. The judge granted the TRO and subsequently issued a preliminary injunction preserving the records while we pursued our case.

Then, just two days before today’s hearing, the Registrar of Voters filed a motion asking the court to vacate that protection.

Today, Judge Daniel Ottolia said he had read the briefs and was already inclined to grant the county’s motion to destroy the ballots. Our attorney argued that the order should remain in place. The argument was straightforward: The county has a legal obligation to reconcile election materials. The relief we are seeking would not open or alter the ballots. It would simply preserve them long enough for the discrepancies discovered in the citizen audits to be investigated.

The harm from preserving the ballots for a short period is limited.

The harm from destroying them is permanent.

The County argued that the election canvass had already been completed and certified, that the records are subject to statutory retention rules, and that preserving them would burden county staff as preparations for the upcoming election continue. The County also argued that any remedies available after certification should proceed through mechanisms such as recounts, election contests, or criminal proceedings.

The judge said he had read the briefs and was already inclined to grant the county. counsel motion. The attorneys argued back and forth for about 10 minutes and the judge made his ruling in favor of the ROV. That sequence will look, to a lot of Riverside County residents, like the merits were decided before the argument started. Whether or not that is a fair description of the judge’s internal process, it is a fair description of how the hearing felt, and appearances matter when the subject is public confidence in elections.

Then something unexpected happened.

The judge announced that he was going to grant the County's motion and vacate the TRO. Our attorney was preparing to ask for time to seek emergency relief from the Court of Appeal.

But he didn't even have to ask.

Before our attorney could make that request, the judge himself offered to delay entry of his ruling until September 17.

That gives us approximately one week to seek emergency relief from the Court of Appeal and ask that the ballots remain preserved while the appeal is considered.

The clock is now ticking.

Tomorrow, our attorney begins that appeal.

And we have one week to fight to keep these ballots from being destroyed.

The judge could have made his ruling effective immediately.

He didn't.

He gave us a window.

Now we have to use it.

Your Tax Dollars at work for the wrong side

How much money is being spent to prevent citizens from doing something that should be incredibly simple? This could be accomplished in a matter of days at a relatively modest cost. We just want to count the paper.

Instead, taxpayers are funding government attorneys to fight the effort. The Sheriff has had to retain outside counsel to pursue his own investigation. And now citizens are having to hire private attorneys to defend the public's right to preserve the evidence.

The citizens are paying to ask the government not to destroy the evidence. The citizens are fighting to protect their civil rights.

Now we need your help.

Our attorney is preparing to seek emergency relief from the Court of Appeal tomorrow.

We have approximately one week to keep these ballots protected while that appeal is pursued.

Our attorney is one of the best constitutional attorney's in the country. He needs to be paid and we need to fund this legal fight now.

If you believe citizens have the right to know whether their elections are valid, please help us keep going.

Every donation helps pay the attorneys who are fighting for your civil rights to have your vote count legitimately, to have election results that stand up to audits, to have confidence in the systems that put elected officials in office.

This is not social justice. This is election justice.

Not Republican justice. Not Democrat justice. Not government justice.

Election Justice.

Please donate today and help us preserve the evidence.

https://www.lexrex.org/donate *Type "2024 Election Challenge" in the Honoree section to be sure your donation goes towards this case.

We have one week. We cannot do this without you.