A California sheriff who is running for governor has seized more than 500,000 ballots from a special election, citing an investigation into an alleged discrepancy in the vote count. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, took possession of the ballots from local election officials, who have publicly disputed his claims.
Attorney General Rob Bonta condemned the move as unprecedented and damaging to public trust in elections. In letters to Bianco's office, Bonta said the seizure was 'unacceptable' and 'sets a dangerous precedent'. The sheriff, however, described the effort as a 'fact-finding mission' to physically count the ballots and compare the result with the reported total.
The investigation follows a complaint from a citizens' group about the count in a November 2025 special election on redrawing congressional district lines. The measure passed by more than 80,000 votes in the county, which has a population of 2.5 million. Bianco seized nearly 1,000 boxes of ballots and election materials under a warrant in February, with the alleged discrepancy amounting to approximately 45,800 votes. Election officials have refuted this, saying the difference between the machine count and the final submitted count was about 100 votes.
Bianco is one of two prominent Republicans in a crowded primary field, and leading Democrats fear their multiple candidates may split the vote, potentially sending Bianco and fellow Republican Steve Hilton to the general election in the heavily Democratic state. The sheriff insisted the investigation had 'absolutely nothing to do' with his campaign, adding that he had a duty to investigate alleged crime in the county.
The count had started and stopped but is now set to resume under a court-appointed special master. The action echoes broader Republican claims about election integrity, following former President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated disputes of the 2020 result.
