California sheriff unlawfully seized over 650,000 ballots and must return them, state Supreme Court rules

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco violated the state’s election law by ordering his deputies to seize more than 650,000 ballots tied to the Proposition 50 special election. 

The justices ruled unanimously in two cases against Bianco, stating that he violated the law when he seized the ballots and also ignored directives from Attorney General Rob Bonta. 

The court ordered Bianco to cease his investigation into election fraud claims and return the ballots to county officials. The court also said he must “refrain from further handling of the ballots except as necessary to comply with our order.”

“In short, Bianco’s arguments fail to persuade us that we should interpret section 15551 in a manner inconsistent with its plain text, which mandates that voted ballots remain in the custody of elections officials,” the court wrote in its ruling. 

CBS LA has reached out to Bianco for a statement and is waiting for a response.

When the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office seized the ballots earlier this year, Bianco, who lost his bid for California governor in the primaries, seized more than 611,000 ballots from the special election in which voters approved a redistricting measure that shifted five of California’s Republican U.S. House seats to be more favorable to Democrats in the midterm elections this year. 

Bianco claimed his agency was investigating a complaint from a local group alleging a possible discrepancy in which about 45,800 more votes were reported to California’s Secretary of State. He described the probe as a “fact-finding mission.” 

The investigation faced fierce backlash, including legal challenges from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, UCLA’s Voting Rights Project, whose lawsuit resulted in the court’s decision, and local leaders in Riverside who petitioned to have the ballots returned to the Registrar’s Office.

County elections officials also disputed Bianco’s claim, saying the machine count and the final count submitted to the state differed by about 100 votes. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters said it “will continue to comply with all lawful court orders and with all legal obligations applicable to election materials and election administration.”

After the filings, Bianco said in late March that he would pause his investigation “because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings” before the state Supreme Court ultimately issued a formal order to halt the probe in April. 

The ballots were confiscated and held in an undisclosed location during the case, according to Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, one of the local leaders who petitioned the court. 

Bianco echoed President Trump’s allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election during a podcast appearance on the Ben Maynard Program in October 2025. 

“We absolutely know there was fraud,” Bianco alleged, claiming that “mail-in ballots are purposely designed for fraud.”

He reiterated similar claims while the court heard oral arguments, claiming that the investigation was about “corruption in California.”

“There’s not one state constitution that allows for an individual to stop a lawful investigation into a crime,” Bianco said in late August. “This is about whether or not a corrupt attorney general can stop a lawful investigation.”

The court also ruled unanimously that Bianco ignored directives from Bonta when he was told to pause his investigation. 

“I’m grateful that our State Supreme Court reaffirmed my authority as Attorney General to supervise county sheriffs,” Bonta wrote in a statement. “I take my responsibility to exercise that authority in the public interest seriously. This was an extraordinary situation that required extraordinary action.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former state attorney general Xavier Becerra is part of UCLA’s Voting Rights Project. 

Over the weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills that would prevent anyone from seizing ballots. 

“Today’s ruling affirms that in California we will defend democracy — using every branch of government. And the new laws I signed just last week add new protections so attacks like this cannot happen again,” Newsom wrote in response to the rulings. “People deserve to know their ballot is counted and secure, and in California we will do everything we can to protect that constitutional right — this year, and beyond.”