The California Supreme Court ruled that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco illegally seized hundreds of thousands of ballots from a special election last year.
The election involved a redistricting issue that favored Democrats and was approved last year. Bianco later investigated the matter upon the belief that there was a gap of more than 45,000 votes. “This investigation is simple: Physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes recorded,” he said upon announcing the effort last year.
Bianco was ordered to close his investigation into the matter in April. “To permit further consideration of this petition for review, real parties, their agents, employees, and anyone acting on their behalf are hereby ordered to pause the investigation into the November 2025 special election and preserve all seized items,” the California Supreme Court wrote at the time.
According to the new ruling, Bianco must return the nearly 650,000 ballots he obtained. “If election misconduct is suspected, the Elections Code provides several mechanisms for law enforcement to review and examine ballots without compromising their integrity,” the court explained. “But those procedures were not followed and the type of seizure that occurred here directly conflicts with the Elections Code’s carefully considered and controlling provisions.”
The court moved to “issue a peremptory writ of mandate directing Bianco to return the seized ballots to the registrar’s custody and to refrain from further handling of the ballots except as necessary to comply with our order.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta celebrated the ruling. “After the Sheriff took the extraordinary step of obtaining warrants to seize control over voted ballots, I made a modest request to him: pause your investigation, preserve all evidence, and provide the information needed for my office to review the allegations. Instead, Sheriff Bianco pressed forward with the seizure of hundreds of thousands of ballots,” he said in a statement. “The Court has now made clear that this kind of defiance cannot stand, that the Attorney General has the authority to intervene when sheriffs take improper action, and that voted ballots belong in the custody of elections officials.”
