California Sheriff Refuses to Return Ballots as Supreme Court Reviews Dispute

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is standing by his decision to seize roughly 650,000 ballots from a 2025 California special election as the state Supreme Court considers whether he must return them. According to…

Andrew PowellAug 25, 20263 min read

CaliforniaPoliticsU.S. News

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The measure passed by more than 3.4 million votes, according to the California Secretary of State.

Bianco has questioned whether the official election results accurately reflect the ballots in his possession. He raised that issue while speaking to reporters outside the court.

“How strange, that now we have evidence that the machines counted something different than the ballots that we have, and an Attorney General runs in to stop that investigation so that we’ll never know,” Bianco said.

Bonta has argued that Bianco exceeded his authority by taking and retaining the ballots. His March lawsuit was joined by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, which filed its own legal challenge to the sheriff’s actions.

“This is a sheriff that – despite the clear language in the California constitution, and in California government code, providing me direct supervision, authority over him – failed to comply with it,” Bonta told reporters Monday.

Bonta also said Bianco’s actions were particularly serious because he should have understood the applicable state laws.

Bianco disputes Bonta’s interpretation of those laws and maintains that the attorney general does not have the authority to prevent him from conducting an investigation.

“If you take it word for word, in that context, it means that he has direct authority that if I’m not doing my job he can order me to do it and if I don’t do it he can do it for me,” Bianco said. “But he cannot stop an investigation.”

The state Supreme Court is now considering the competing arguments over whether Bianco can continue holding the ballots and conducting his investigation.

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