{"id":265233,"date":"2026-04-13T07:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/265233\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T07:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:36:09","slug":"california-supreme-court-orders-gop-sheriff-to-pause-election-probe-an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/265233\/","title":{"rendered":"California Supreme Court orders GOP sheriff to pause election probe an&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a county sheriff who <a data-wisiwig-link=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/california-ballot-seizure-bianco-bonta-election-68754a307394ca3c90ec627ce4e3e4fa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"text_$sec cursor_pointer transition-prop_color duration_$fast ease_east-out hover:text_$sec_D hover:duration_$fast hover:ease_east-out hover:transition-prop_color\">seized more than half a million 2025 election ballots<\/a> to pause his probe into election fraud allegations while the judges review the legal challenge against it.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">The order came after California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, last month <a data-wisiwig-link=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sheriff-chad-bianco-seized-ballot-riverside-legal-challenge-b56ba10726618ceaf4db803b7df10555\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"text_$sec cursor_pointer transition-prop_color duration_$fast ease_east-out hover:text_$sec_D hover:duration_$fast hover:ease_east-out hover:transition-prop_color\">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<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">The dispute started earlier this year and escalated last month when Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco <a data-wisiwig-link=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/california-ballot-seizure-bianco-bonta-election-68754a307394ca3c90ec627ce4e3e4fa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"text_$sec cursor_pointer transition-prop_color duration_$fast ease_east-out hover:text_$sec_D hover:duration_$fast hover:ease_east-out hover:transition-prop_color\">seized 1,000 boxes of election materials<\/a> to investigate a complaint from a local citizens group about the ballot count from a November 2025 special election on <a data-wisiwig-link=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/california-redistricting-prop-50-gavin-newsom-839193bfc2a817086acca7365315f26f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"text_$sec cursor_pointer transition-prop_color duration_$fast ease_east-out hover:text_$sec_D hover:duration_$fast hover:ease_east-out hover:transition-prop_color\">redistricting<\/a>. Local election officials told the county Board of Supervisors that the complaint was unfounded. After Bonta ordered Bianco to halt his probe, the sheriff seized another 426 boxes of ballots.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">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.<a data-wisiwig-link=\"true\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sacobserver.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"text_$sec cursor_pointer transition-prop_color duration_$fast ease_east-out hover:text_$sec_D hover:duration_$fast hover:ease_east-out hover:transition-prop_color\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a county sheriff who seized more than&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2081,989,734,13],"class_list":{"0":"post-265233","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-elections","13":"tag-law-enforcement","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265233","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=265233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}