Riverside Sheriff Seizes Ballots Amid Redistricting Dispute
Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco seized over half a million ballots from a November 2025 redistricting special election after a citizens group alleged a 45,000–45,800 vote discrepancy; state officials have challenged the move.
Breitbart NewsCalifornia Sheriff Seizes 650K Ballots to Determine 2025 Election Integrity
FortuneCalifornia sheriff running for governor seizes more than a half million ballots from 2025 election | Fortune
CNNCalifornia sheriff running for governor seizes more than a half million ballots from 2025 election | CNN
ABC NewsCalifornia sheriff running for governor seizes more than a half million ballots from 2025 election
Overview
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seized more than half a million ballots from the November 2025 special election and said the count, which had started and stopped, will resume under a special master appointed by a judge.
Bianco launched the probe after a complaint from a local citizens group alleging a discrepancy between handwritten ballot intake logs and votes reported in the redistricting special election, which passed in the county by a margin of more than 80,000 votes.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the seizure unprecedented and said it risked sowing distrust, and county elections officials disputed Bianco's claims, saying the machine count and the final count differed by about 100 votes.
Bianco and a watchdog group pointed to roughly 45,000 to 45,800 disputed votes, and Bianco seized nearly 1,000 boxes of ballots and election materials from the county elections office.
Bianco, who is running for governor and is one of two prominent Republican candidates in a crowded June primary, said the investigation had nothing to do with his campaign while Bonta sought the sheriff's investigative file.
Analysis
Center-leaning sources frame the story as politically motivated law-enforcement overreach, emphasizing skepticism and institutional pushback. They foreground quotes from Attorney General Rob Bonta calling the seizure "unacceptable," link Bianco’s action to Trump-style postures, and highlight official refutations of Bianco’s vote-discrepancy claims and the large gap between his and county figures.
FAQ
Proposition 50 was a ballot measure to approve new legislatively-drawn congressional district maps starting in 2026, setting aside maps from the state's nonpartisan citizen redistricting commission until after the 2030 census.
The group alleged a discrepancy of about 45,000 to 45,800 votes between handwritten ballot intake logs (around 611,000 votes) and the machine-counted ballots (over 657,000 votes).
Sheriff Bianco seized nearly 1,000 boxes of ballots and election materials from the county elections office and announced a recount under a special master appointed by a judge.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the seizure unprecedented, lacking evidence, and said it sows distrust; county elections officials disputed the claims, noting only a 100-vote difference between machine and final counts.
The measure passed in Riverside County by a margin of more than 80,000 votes.
