Court Battles

California Supreme Court halts sheriff’s investigation into special election ballots

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/09/26 1:58 PM ET

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by Ryan Mancini - 04/09/26 1:58 PM ET

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The California Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to stop his investigation into ballots from the November special election that his office seized following accusations of voter fraud.

Bianco, who is also running as a Republican candidate for governor, seized more than 650,000 ballots from the local election office as part of his investigation, which began in February. The sheriff followed a tip from a local community group that claimed the vote tallies did not match the official number of ballots cast.

Bianco said he was “technically … very happy” with the court’s ruling.

“Unfortunately we are status quo, we’re still at the hold of the court,” he said in a video posted to Instagram. “So, we are not allowed to progress with the counting of the ballots, and we’ll just continue fighting for this for you, and we’ll make sure that an investigation, like any investigation, is completed and not swept under the rug, as our attorney general would like to happen.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), who demanded that Bianco stop his investigation, called on the state Supreme Court to intervene. He praised its decision as a “necessary and appropriate response to what is clearly an unprecedented situation.”

“The Riverside County Sheriff willfully defied my direct orders, seized 650,000 ballots, misused criminal investigatory tools, and created a constitutional emergency in the process,” Bonta said in a statement obtained by The Hill. “What the Sheriff says and what he does are often two different things. This 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.

“The Supreme Court has also agreed to review this case on the merits — a necessary and appropriate response to what is clearly an unprecedented situation,” Bonta added. “We look forward to briefing the Court.”

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gail O’Rane on Tuesday also ordered the three search warrants for the ballots to be unsealed after several media organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, sued to review the documents. The documents were released after the state’s top court ordered Bianco to stop his investigation.

The warrants, reviewed by the Times, do not identify a specific scenario or person who was involved in an instance of voter fraud. Riverside officials previously attempted to keep them sealed, citing an active investigation.

Bianco last week paused his investigation as he faced several legal challenges. He previously told the Times that the investigation was put “on hold … because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings.”

Art Tinoco, registrar of voters for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, previously said the difference with the special election ballots was 103 votes. He said the local community group’s allegations of voter fraud were inaccurate and based on a misunderstanding of unprocessed raw data.

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