{"id":239685,"date":"2026-03-27T19:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239685\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T19:49:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:49:07","slug":"california-sheriff-seizes-more-ballot-materials-in-defiance-of-state-officials-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/239685\/","title":{"rendered":"California sheriff seizes more ballot materials in defiance of state officials | California"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Republican<\/a> sheriff in California<\/a> has confiscated additional ballot materials<\/a> from a special election, escalating his conflict with state lawmakers who say he is conducting a baseless investigation into claims of voter fraud.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Chad Bianco, the Riverside county sheriff who is running for governor, was already at the center of a legal controversy after seizing 650,000 ballots<\/a> from last year\u2019s special election. Earlier this week he ordered his office to seize 426 additional boxes<\/a> of ballot materials as part of the alleged criminal investigation, prompting criticism from lawmakers including Rob Bonta, California\u2019s Democratic attorney general.<\/p>\n

Bianco\u2019s ballot seizures have triggered several lawsuits against him, including one filed with the California supreme court<\/a> by voters represented by the UCLA Voting Rights Project. The lawsuit seeks to block his recount of last year\u2019s vote on Proposition 50<\/a>, a measure to redraw California\u2019s congressional districts in ways that favored Democrats.<\/p>\n

Prop 50 was introduced by Gavin Newsom in response to Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to gerrymander additional Republican seats in red states, and was passed overwhelmingly<\/a> by voters last November.<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s criminal investigation into alleged voter fraud came when a local group, the Riverside Election Integrity Team, claimed<\/a> there was a difference of 45,896 votes between the official results and the handwritten counts of ballots. However, according to<\/a> state officials, the actual difference was only 103 votes.<\/p>\n

Bonta has rejected the claims, saying<\/a>: \u201cThere is no indication, anywhere in the United States, of widespread voter fraud \u2026 Counts, recounts, hand counts, audits, and court cases all support this.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Bonta filed a separate lawsuit<\/a> against the sheriff, who is one of two Republicans<\/a> running in the state\u2019s gubernatorial primary which includes over a half dozen Democratic candidates.<\/p>\n

In his lawsuit, Bonta accused Bianco of having \u201cinitiated a sweeping and unprecedented criminal investigation into claimed discrepancies between the number of votes that were cast and the number of votes that were counted\u201d but provided \u201cfacially insufficient\u201d evidence to obtain and serve search warrants at the registrar of voters.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> Bonta\u2019s lawsuit, his office raised serious concerns about whether the search warrants obtained by Bianco were legally valid and warned that a weak investigation could undermine public trust in election oversight. He instructed the sheriff to pause the investigation and turn over case records so the state could determine next steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite repeatedly representing that he would comply, sheriff Bianco willfully violated the attorney general\u2019s directives and continued to abuse the criminal process,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

Bonta added that Bianco\u2019s ballot seizures are \u201cunprecedented in state history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shirley Weber, California\u2019s secretary of state, also condemned Bianco\u2019s actions, saying last week: \u201cThe Riverside county sheriff\u2019s office has taken actions based on allegations that lack credible evidence and risk undermining public confidence in our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sheriff\u2019s assertion that his deputies know how to count is admirable. The fact remains that he and his deputies are not election officials, and they do not have expertise in election administration,\u201d Weber added<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel denied<\/a> Bonta\u2019s bid to stop Bianco\u2019s ballot recount, stating that the state attorney general should apply with a lower court.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the lawsuit filed against Bianco by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, voters have warned<\/a>: \u201cEvery day the sheriff fails to comply with the attorney general\u2019s directives, the attorney general is injured in his ability to carry out his duties as the state\u2019s chief law officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have called on the state\u2019s supreme court to \u201cissue an immediate stay of the sheriff\u2019s investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bianco has previously promoted anti-voting rhetoric online, according to an investigation<\/a> by Democracy Docket.<\/p>\n

The outlet reported that comments apparently made by Bianco on his LinkedIn included: \u201cThat\u2019s why some people should never be allowed to vote,\u201d and that Democrats \u201chave created an environment where cheating and illegal voting is keeping them in office\u201d, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n

Another comment read: \u201cWhy would they be scared if they aren\u2019t illegal? Illegals shouldn\u2019t be voting!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bianco\u2019s office has defended his actions, saying in a statement on Friday: \u201cThe attorney general\u2019s office has taken massive steps, at taxpayers\u2019 expense, to prevent a lawful investigation from occurring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly why Californians are sick and tired of the California government; it is corrupt and no longer working in the best interests of Californians,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Republican sheriff in California has confiscated additional ballot materials from a special election, escalating his conflict with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-239685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}