Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco faces criticism for seizing ballots in a November 2025 election probe, sparking fears it might undermine public trust.<\/p>\n
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. \u2014 A Southern California sheriff has seized more than 600,000 ballots as part of an investigation into alleged discrepancies in the November 2025 special election for Prop 50, drawing sharp criticism from state officials who question the probe\u2019s basis and warn it could undermine public trust.<\/p>\n
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican candidate for governor, announced Friday<\/a> that his office is examining claims that ballots may have been miscounted in his county.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is basically a fact-finding mission,\u201d Bianco said.<\/p>\n The investigation centers on figures from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters, which administers local elections. Bianco said an audit of handwritten logs maintained by the office shows 611,428 ballots were cast, while 657,322 votes were reported and certified to the state \u2014 a difference of 45,896.<\/p>\n He said the calculation was conducted by a group of citizen volunteers who obtained the records through a public records request.<\/p>\n “We don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to find until we count those ballots,\u201d Bianco said.<\/p>\n Riverside County’s Registrar of Voters explained the discrepancy<\/a> in a report to the Board of Supervisors at its Feb. 10 meeting.<\/p>\n California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said<\/a> the allegations \u201clack credible evidence and risk undermining public confidence in our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n Bianco said the investigation is not intended to prove fraud but to verify the results.<\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose of this investigation is just as much to prove the election is accurate as it is to show otherwise,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will not know until the count is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n In letters sent from late February through early March, California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged Bianco to pause the investigation, calling it \u201cunprecedented in scope and scale\u201d and warning it could erode confidence in state elections.<\/p>\n At the same time, Bonta said his office takes concerns about potential election irregularities seriously and needs time to review the issues before the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office takes further steps.<\/p>\n Asked about those concerns, Bianco said the investigation would only undermine trust if it revealed inaccuracies in vote counting.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat undermines the public trust in elections is the Attorney General trying to stop it from happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Gowri Ramachandran<\/a> is Director of Elections and Security at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law. She compares Bianco\u2019s seizure of ballots to Trump doing the same in Fulton County, Georgia earlier this year\u2014in search of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n “It looks like in both cases, the investigations are being driven by claims from activists that have already been investigated or addressed,” she wrote in a thread on Bluesky<\/a>. \u201cThese ballot seizures are setting a dangerous precedent. States provide a variety of methods with preset procedures for confirming an election result, and for disputing it afterwards.”<\/p>\n Bianco rejected those comparisons.<\/p>\n “Every single one of those arguments is simply made to somehow make the public mistrust me, label me as being somehow associated with the federal government or with President Trump, and it’s just absolutely wrong,” he said. “My investigation is based on fact and common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n The Attorney General\u2019s office said Bianco seized about 1,000 boxes of ballots and raised concerns about \u201clegal deficiencies\u201d in the affidavits used to obtain the warrants, including the omission of material facts. The office said the matter is ongoing and additional action may be taken.<\/p>\n Bianco said a Riverside County judge has ordered that a ‘special master’ oversee the ballot-counting process. His office is working with the court to select that person. Only then may the counting begin.<\/p>\n He said the review will focus only on the number of ballots received, not the votes themselves, and expects the process to begin soon.<\/p>\n