{"id":259100,"date":"2026-04-09T09:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259100\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:54:17","slug":"california-supreme-court-orders-gop-sheriff-to-pause-election-probe-and-preserve-seized-ballots-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259100\/","title":{"rendered":"California Supreme Court orders GOP sheriff to pause election probe and preserve seized ballots"},"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":259101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2081,28687,91414,108034,28492,108033,2794],"class_list":{"0":"post-259100","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","11":"tag-california-supreme-court","12":"tag-chad-bianco","13":"tag-county-board-of-supervisors","14":"tag-county-sheriff","15":"tag-election-fraud","16":"tag-election-materials","17":"tag-rob-bonta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259100","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=259100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}