California’s Democratic legal professional basic and a voting rights group launched legal challenges this week to halt a seizure and recount of greater than half a million 2025 election ballots by a Republican county sheriff who’s working for governor.
The dispute over the ballot seizure in Riverside County, which started final month, escalated this week as Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta urged the courtroom to step in and Sheriff Chad Bianco doubled down by taking extra ballots from a county election workplace. A Riverside County choose held a listening to Friday on Bonta’s request for the case to transfer shortly.
His workplace mentioned in a Thursday submitting that Bianco seized one other 426 containers of election supplies this week. Bianco mentioned his probe was legal and accredited by a Riverside County choose.
“We are conducting a lawful investigation, approved by a judge,” he mentioned in a assertion. “I think the failed democratic candidates are just trying to rally a base for their own political benefit.”
Separately, the UCLA Voting Rights Project argued in a state Supreme Court submitting Thursday that the seizure violated state legal guidelines on election supplies.
Bianco, one in all two distinguished Republican gubernatorial candidates, earlier this month mentioned his workplace had launched the investigation after receiving a criticism from a native residents group concerning the ballot rely from a November 2025 particular election on redistricting. He referred to as the trouble “a fact-finding mission,” seizing some 650,000 ballots in Riverside County, the inland California county of two.5 million folks the place he has twice been elected sheriff. Local election officers advised the county Board of Supervisors final month the criticism was unfounded.
Bianco mentioned final week that his workplace would bodily rely the ballots and evaluate the end result with the full votes reported to the state. The counting is being executed by sheriff’s officers underneath the supervision of a particular grasp appointed by a courtroom. He didn’t give a timeline on when the counting would conclude.
Bonta’s first effort this week to stop the rely failed after an appeals courtroom mentioned his petition was filed within the flawed place. He’s now refiled it in a decrease courtroom.
“Absent swift action by this Court, the Sheriff’s misguided investigation threatens to sow distrust and jeopardize public confidence in the upcoming primary and general elections, not just in Riverside County but around the State,” the petition reads. “It also sets a dangerous precedent that could invite future attempts to improperly contest election results through a misuse of law enforcement authority and the criminal process.”
The sheriff, a supporter of President Donald Trump, mentioned he obtained warrants signed by a choose to seize the ballots. Bianco mentioned the alleged discrepancy amounted to about 45,800 votes — a distinction elections officers have refuted at county conferences, saying the machine rely and the ultimate rely submitted to the state differed by about 100 votes. They argue the handwritten rolls, which weren’t relied on to test the rely, had been being stored by short-term elections employees who had labored lengthy days and could have made errors.
The UCLA Voting Rights Project argued the sheriff has no authority to seize the ballots in a petition filed on behalf of a number of Riverside County voters. It’s asking the state Supreme Court to order Bianco to return the ballots.
“Law enforcement officials are legally prohibited from interfering in counting ballots, in California and nationwide,” former state legal professional basic Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who’s working for governor and serves as a senior advisor of the group, mentioned in a assertion. “A candidate for Governor should know the law and lead by example, not weaponize his law enforcement office for political gain.”
The ballot probe got here as President Trump has repeatedly disputed the outcomes of the 2020 election, citing unsubstantiated cases of fraud. His administration not too long ago seized ballots and different paperwork from an election workplace in Georgia. Some Republicans have mirrored Trump’s rhetoric on voting of their states.