Rick Hasen
Role at the time: Election law scholar; professor at UCLA School of Law and director of its Safeguarding Democracy Project
Statement summary
Election law scholar Rick Hasen wrote that, as to the Proposition 50 election, the warrants cite only claims that have been "completely discredited", and that if ballots were about to be destroyed the proper remedy was an order to retain them, not seizing them and placing them "outside the chain of custody".
“As to the Prop. 50 election, the warrants cite only claims, that have been completely discredited, of a so-called “election integrity” group that claimed fraud based upon misunderstanding the Riverside County election office’s reporting of ballot counts. … If that was the case, then the proper remedy would be an order to retain the ballots, not to have them seized rendering them outside the chain of custody and unreliable for any further investigation.”
Election law scholar Rick Hasen's post on the day the three Riverside County search warrants were made public, with links to the warrants.
Why we used this label
The reference point is the sheriff's seizure and handling of the ballots. Hasen says the warrants relied on discredited claims and that, if ballots were about to be destroyed, the proper remedy was an order to retain them rather than seizure, which expressly rejects the seizure.