Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco says his election fraud investigation into last fall’s Proposition 50 Special Election has been brought to a halt by what he calls “politically motivated lawsuits” — legal challenges filed by California’s attorney general that Bianco says are blocking a legitimate inquiry into potential ballot irregularities.
Bianco, a Republican who is running for governor of California, announced earlier this month that his office had seized more than 650,000 ballots cast in Riverside County during the November Proposition 50 vote. The measure temporarily redrew California’s congressional districts, shifting five Republican-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to be more favorable to Democrats ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Bianco’s department also seized an additional 426 boxes of ballot materials from county elections officials on March 24, expanding the scope of the investigation he has described as a “fact-finding mission.”
Bianco says the investigation was triggered by a citizens group that conducted its own audit and claimed to have found a discrepancy of roughly 45,000 votes between the number of ballots cast and the number counted in the election. However, Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco told the county Board of Supervisors last month that the actual discrepancy was just 103 votes — about 0.016% of all ballots cast — and that the larger claim was based on misinterpretations of raw, unprocessed data.
“This investigation is simple: Physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes reported,” Bianco told reporters at a press conference on March 20.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sharply criticized the probe, calling it “unprecedented in both scope and scale.” As reported by Democracy Docket, Bonta sent Bianco a letter on March 4, instructing the sheriff to pause all action until his office could review the legal basis for the investigation’s warrants. Bonta wrote that he had “serious concerns as to whether probable cause existed to support the issuance of the Warrants.”
Bonta then filed a new lawsuit requesting that a Riverside County Superior Court judge issue an expedited ruling to halt what he called “brazen, ongoing violations” of his directives. The lawsuit warned that without court intervention, the investigation threatens to “sow distrust and jeopardize public confidence in the upcoming primary and general elections, not just in Riverside County but around the state.”
Bianco has defended his actions, saying his office obtained search warrants that were “approved and signed by a judge.” He questioned Bonta’s motives, saying: “The only question that should be asked is why anyone would not want an investigation to occur.”
A Riverside County Superior Court judge has appointed a special master to oversee any ballot counting. Separately, the UCLA Voting Rights Project filed a petition Thursday asking the California Supreme Court to order Bianco to return all seized ballots to the county registrar. The petition argues that state law requires ballots to remain in the custody of the county registrar at all times.
Former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is also running for governor and serves as senior voting rights advisor for the UCLA Voting Rights Project, said in a statement: “His reckless seizure and his attempt to oversee a recount not only violate California election law but are based on no credible evidence whatsoever.”
President Trump previously called the Proposition 50 vote a “GIANT SCAM” on social media and suggested the election was “under very serious legal and criminal review.” Bianco has not ruled out federal involvement in the case, saying, “It may be a situation where the federal government has jurisdiction over this.”
Prop 50 passed in Riverside County with 56% of voters in favor. The investigation remains on hold pending further court rulings, with the California Supreme Court petition and Bonta’s lawsuit still working their way through the legal system.
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