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Sheriff Chad Bianco Seizes 650,000 Ballots, Sparking California Election Clash

Sheriff Chad Bianco Seizes 650,000 Ballots, Sparking California Election Clash
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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a leading Republican candidate for California governor, seized more than 650,000 ballots from a 2025 special election, triggering an unprecedented clash with the state’s top election and law‑enforcement officials over who controls the mechanics of vote counting in the nation’s most populous state latimes +1. The probe centered on alleged discrepancies in the Proposition 50 vote tally has quickly become a test of how far a gubernatorial contender can go in questioning election results while still overseeing them as a local lawman latimes +1.

An Unprecedented Seizure — And a Disputed Discrepancy

In February, sheriff’s investigators removed roughly 1,000 boxes of ballots and election materials from the Riverside County registrar’s office, encompassing nearly every ballot cast locally in the November 2025 special election on Proposition 50, which redrew congressional districts and passed with about 56% of the vote in the county latimes +1. Bianco said he launched the investigation after a citizens group, the Riverside Election Integrity Team, claimed a gap of about 45,896 votes between ballots logged as received and those counted, calling any such discrepancy “unacceptable” and demanding a physical recount latimes +1.

County election officials, however, told supervisors the group’s analysis misread intake records and that the real variance was 103 ballots — about 0.016% of those cast and far below thresholds that might call the outcome into question latimes +1. No court has altered or decertified the Prop. 50 results, and state officials say there is no evidence of widespread fraud in California elections latimes +1.

Clash With Sacramento Raises Stakes for Governor’s Race

Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber have sharply criticized the seizure as “unprecedented in both scope and scale” and warned that allowing sheriff’s deputies — who are not election professionals — to handle ballots risks undermining confidence in the system latimes +1. Bonta’s office sent letters in late February and early March questioning the legal basis for the warrants and alleging key facts were omitted from affidavits seeking the seizure, while urging Bianco to halt the count or justify continuing it latimes.

Bianco has refused, accusing Bonta of political interference and insisting he has a duty to investigate possible crimes before ballots reach destruction deadlines latimes +1. A Riverside County judge has since appointed a special master to oversee any ballot review, shifting control of the evidence to the court latimes. The standoff has thrust Bianco’s candidacy into the spotlight: recent polling cited in coverage showed him narrowly leading a crowded GOP field, making the outcome of the probe — and public perception of it — a live factor in the 2026 governor’s race latimes.

The Bigger Picture

The Riverside seizure unfolded amid a national wave of election‑fraud rhetoric and high‑profile interventions by law enforcement in ballot handling, from FBI raids in Georgia to renewed partisan battles over voter data latimes +1. While Bianco and his supporters frame the effort as a straightforward audit — “physically count the ballots and compare” — California’s top election officials see a dangerous precedent in allowing a partisan‑aligned sheriff, who is simultaneously running for governor, to commandeer ballots on contested legal grounds latimes +2. Whatever the courts decide about the warrants and the count, the episode has already signaled that in 2026, fights over who controls elections in California may matter as much as the policies candidates propose.