Art Tinoco
Role at the time: Riverside County Registrar of Voters and respondent in Cervantes v. Bianco (through counsel)
Response to this claim
Elections Code section 15551(d) requires that voted ballots never be taken from the elections official's custody, so Sheriff Bianco violated it when he removed the Riverside County ballots from the Registrar of Voters, even under a search warrant.
“As a county election official, Respondent is required to comply with all facially valid warrants and orders issued by courts of competent jurisdiction. His compliance with such judicial process should not be construed to mean that he acted unlawfully or failed to fulfill his obligations under the Elections Code. … Consistent with his obligations as an elections official, Respondent agrees that voted ballots and related election materials should be maintained, preserved, transported, inspected, retained, and administered in accordance with the Elections Code and under procedures designed to protect ballot security, transparency, accountability, and public confidence in election administration. Respondent therefore does not oppose the relief requested in the Petition and respectfully submits that issuance of the requested writ would further those objectives by ensuring compliance with California law governing the custody and handling of election materials. … Sheriff Bianco contends that section 15551 does not impose an absolute custodial requirement because courts must harmonize the Elections Code with the Penal Code by permitting seizure of voted ballots pursuant to a valid judicial warrant. … Respectfully, that interpretation is erroneous, as it cannot be reconciled with the text and structure of section 15551. … There is no evidence of suspected criminal wrongdoing by personnel within the Riverside County Registrar of Voters’ office. Likewise, there is no evidence that the integrity, preservation, or security of the ballots would be jeopardized by their continued custody by the Registrar, the very official to whom California law assigns responsibility for maintaining and preserving election materials.”
The Registrar of Voters' return in the California Supreme Court, verified by Art Tinoco. It states his position on ballot custody, on his own compliance with the warrants, and on the voters' request that the ballots be returned.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The reference point is the sheriff's seizure and handling of the ballots. Tinoco says the sheriff's reading of section 15551, which would permit seizing voted ballots under a warrant, is erroneous and does not oppose the writ ordering their return, so he rejects the legal basis for the seizure. His defense of his own compliance with the warrants concerns his conduct, not the sheriff's, so condemns applies rather than mixed or conditional.