The California Supreme Court ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to close his investigation into the November special election redrawing the state’s congressional districts.
“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 court wrote, while agreeing to review the case themselves.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta celebrated the order. “The Riverside County sheriff willfully defied my direct orders, seized 650,000 ballots, misused criminal investigatory tools and created a constitutional emergency in the process,” he said in a statement reported by Courthouse News Service. “What the sheriff says and what he does are often two different things. Today’s decision by the California Supreme Court reins in the destabilizing actions of a rogue sheriff, prohibiting him from continuing this investigation while our litigation continues.”
Bianco seized more than 650,000 ballots from California’s November 2025 special election last month, opening a physical recount after a third-party group found evidence of roughly 45,000 excess votes. “This investigation is simple: Physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes recorded,” he said during a press conference.
Bonta’s office said in a statement following the seizure, “The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office is not equipped nor legally authorized to play the role of elections monitor. By all appearances, this investigation is little more than a fishing expedition meant to sow distrust and undermine public confidence in our elections.”
