California Supreme Court Deliberates on Ballot Seizure by Riverside County Sheriff
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco remains resolute as the California Supreme Court considers whether he must return approximately 650,000 ballots that he seized from a November 2025 special election concerning redistricting. The court recently heard arguments from Bianco’s legal team and California state representatives, where Attorney General Rob Bonta initiated a legal challenge in March. Bonta had ordered Bianco to return the ballots, citing legal concerns.
Despite these orders, Bianco argued through his legal representatives that he had a duty to investigate the ballots following a received complaint. Bianco stated, “I did this, and this was legal. I went a different route. They are legal. Both routes are legal. It’s just their side doesn’t like the route I chose.”
DOJ demands 865,000 Detroit ballots, threatening potential legal action.
During a recent appearance at the Supreme Court of California in San Francisco, Bianco’s lawyer, Bradley Hertz, confirmed that Bianco is still holding the ballots, maintaining that they are evidence. “The sheriff is holding that evidence, safeguarding it as a custodian for the court,” Hertz remarked.
The ballots in question are from a special election where voters decided on Proposition 50, a legislative redistricting measure that passed by over 3.4 million votes, as recorded by the California Secretary of State.
Bianco expressed doubts about the validity of the official count, suggesting discrepancies between the machine count and the physical ballots, raising concerns about the Attorney General’s interference in halting the investigation. Outside the courthouse, Bianco said, “How strange, that now we have evidence that the machines counted something different than the ballots that we have, and an Attorney General runs in to stop that investigation so that we’ll never know.”
In filing his March challenge, Bonta teamed up with the UCLA Voting Rights Project to pursue a separate legal challenge against Bianco’s actions. Bonta criticized Bianco for defying the California constitution and government code, saying, “Despite the clear language, providing me direct supervision, authority over him, he failed to comply.”
Bonta added, “He can read, he knows what it says, it makes his violations even more egregious.” Bianco, however, contested Bonta’s interpretation, asserting, “If you take it word for word, in that context, it means that he has direct authority that if I’m not doing my job, he can order me to do it, and if I don’t do it, he can do it for me. But he cannot stop an investigation.”
Fox News Digital sought further comments from the UCLA Voting Rights Project, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, and the California Attorney General’s Office.