# Richard Hasen **Richard L. Hasen** is a professor at UCLA School of Law and director of its Safeguarding Democracy Project, and one of the most cited election-law scholars in the United States. He enters this vault as co-author, with staff attorney Shelby Wayment, of the **9 September 2026** guide instructing judges how to handle law-enforcement applications to seize ballots, voting equipment or election materials during a live election — published fifteen days before the California Supreme Court ruled on exactly such a seizure in Riverside County. Its six recommendations to judges (scrutinise the evidentiary basis rather than accept a probable-cause conclusion; consider delaying execution until after certification; notify and hear election administrators; take copies rather than originals so the chain of custody survives; narrow scope or allow observation instead; expedite return) are non-binding, which is the point: nothing in American law tells a judge at that moment what to weigh. See [[Election Ballot Chain of Custody Flow]], stage 11 and Note 6. Expand with: his major books and the Election Law Blog, his work on campaign finance and the Voting Rights Act, and his proposals for federal election-administration legislation. This is a stub — created in the 2026-10-03 ASCII map build. Expand as noted above. ## See Also - [[Election Ballot Chain of Custody Flow]] · [[Chad Bianco]] - [[Verified Voting]] · [[Brennan Center for Justice]]