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Riverside County ballot seizure legal dispute

Updated 1 time since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-09-26 21:12 UTC → 2026-09-27 03:56 UTC · added removed

The California Supreme Court issued unanimous rulings against Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco regarding the seizure of approximately 650,000 ballots from a 2025 special election. The seizure was prompted by activist claims from the Riverside Election Integrity Team that vote tallies from a redistricting election referendum, known as Proposition 50, did not align with the number of ballots received. While activists alleged a discrepancy of nearly 46,000 votes, election officials stated the actual discrepancy was only 103 votes. The court declared the seizure unlawful, noting that state law requires voted ballots to remain under the custody of election officials even during criminal investigations. Associate Justice Goodwin H. Liu characterized the incident as the “unlawful removal and handling by armed deputies of over 1,000 boxes of documents.” Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero further noted that ballots must remain in the custody of election officials during active criminal probes. Additionally, the justices ruled that Bianco violated the law by ignoring directives from Attorney General Rob Bonta to halt the investigation. The court affirmed the Attorney General’s constitutional authority to issue binding directions to sheriffs to ensure uniform law enforcement. The Consequently, the court has ordered the immediate return of all seized materials to county election officials and instructed the sheriff to refrain from further handling Riverside County Registrar of Voters and ruled that Bianco must cease his criminal investigation into the ballots. election results unless he receives explicit permission from Attorney General Bonta.

Versions

  1. 2026-09-27 03:56 UTC Riverside County ballot seizure legal dispute
  2. 2026-09-26 21:12 UTC Riverside County ballot seizure legal dispute

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