{"id":257903,"date":"2026-04-08T17:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/257903\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T17:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T17:51:09","slug":"california-supreme-court-halts-county-sheriffs-election-fraud-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/257903\/","title":{"rendered":"California Supreme Court halts county sheriff’s election fraud probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a county sheriff who seized more than half a million 2025 election ballots<\/a> to pause his probe into election fraud allegations while the judges review the legal challenge against it.<\/p>\n

The order came after California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, last month asked the court to step in<\/a>, arguing the sheriff has no authority over election materials. A voting rights group is also challenging the ballot seizure.<\/p>\n

The dispute started earlier this year and escalated last month when Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seized 1,000 boxes of election materials<\/a> to investigate a complaint from a local citizens group about the ballot count from a November 2025 special election on redistricting<\/a>. Local election officials told the county Board of Supervisors that the complaint was unfounded. After Bonta ordered Bianco to halt his probe, the sheriff seized another 426 boxes of ballots.<\/p>\n

Bianco and his office \u201care hereby ordered to pause the investigation into the November 2025 special election and preserve all seized items,\u201d the order reads.<\/p>\n

Bonta said the Wednesday order is essential to stop the sheriff\u2019s probe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the Sheriff says and what he does are often two different things,\u201d Bonta said in a statement. \u201cToday\u2019s decision by the California Supreme Court reins in the destabilizing actions of a rogue Sheriff, prohibiting him from continuing this investigation while our litigation continues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bianco\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

Bianco is also one of two prominent Republican gubernatorial candidates in the state. He previously defended his investigation, noting it was approved by a county judge. The sheriff last week said he\u2019s paused the probe<\/a> because of mounting legal challenges.<\/p>\n

The ballot investigation came as President Donald Trump has repeatedly disputed the results of the 2020 election, citing unsubstantiated instances of fraud. His administration recently seized ballots and other documents<\/a> from an election office in Georgia. Some Republicans have mirrored Trump\u2019s rhetoric on voting in their states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a county sheriff who seized more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1400,565,7,9,8,28687,1312,536,989,18,13,991,2794,6140,17,6141,1710],"class_list":{"0":"post-257903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-headlines","12":"tag-california-news","13":"tag-chad-bianco","14":"tag-courts","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-elections","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-redistricting","20":"tag-rob-bonta","21":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","22":"tag-u-s-news","23":"tag-u-s-republican-party","24":"tag-voting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257903","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=257903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}