A California appellate court on Tuesday denied Attorney General Rob Bonta’s emergency request to stop Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco from recounting more than 650,000 ballots from the November 2025 special election — a move that has ignited a fierce legal and political battle over the boundaries of law enforcement authority in California elections.
According to CalMatters, a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal denied Bonta’s 70-page petition, ruling that the attorney general should have filed his complaint with a lower court rather than the appellate panel. Bonta’s office said it was “evaluating next steps to ensure a swift and appropriate resolution to this matter.”
Bianco, a Republican who is among the leading candidates in the 2026 race for governor, seized the ballots using three search warrants issued by a Riverside County Superior Court judge — two in February and a third on March 19. The warrants are currently under seal. The ballots were cast in last November’s special election, which decided Proposition 50, a measure that redrawn the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats.
The sheriff says his investigation was triggered by a local citizens’ group that claimed county election officials overstated the ballot count by more than 45,000 votes. Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco has flatly rejected that claim, telling county supervisors the group relied on incomplete data that excluded confidential, provisional, and other ballots. Tinoco has said the actual discrepancy is about 100 votes.
Bianco has described the probe as a “fact-finding mission” that is intended “just as much to prove the election is accurate as it is to show otherwise.” A Riverside County Superior Court judge has appointed a special master to oversee the count, which Bianco says will restart under the court’s guidance.
Bonta argues the warrants are legally deficient. As reported by the Anchorage Daily News, the attorney general’s office stated that “the Sheriff has not identified any particular crime that may have been committed by anyone — a necessary predicate to obtain a criminal search warrant,” adding that the investigation amounts to “a fishing expedition meant to sow distrust and undermine public confidence in our elections.”
David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research and a former senior Department of Justice trial attorney, agreed with Bonta’s assessment. “You can’t use a warrant as a PR tool, as something to help your political campaign,” Becker said. “You have to meet certain standards in order to obtain a warrant, because a warrant is extraordinary.”
Bianco pushed back hard, accusing Bonta of political interference. “Why would you interfere and obstruct an investigation instead of assist? What are you afraid of?” Bianco said in a statement. He also said on social media Monday night: “Why in the world would Rob Bonta want that count stopped unless he was afraid of what that count would uncover?”
The Guardian reported that Chandra Bhatnagar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, called Bianco’s claims “misleading” and said the investigation “represents a serious threat to voter privacy, undermines our democratic process and raises questions about the misuse of law enforcement authority for political gain.”
Political science professor Kim Nalder of Sacramento State University called the ballot seizure “extremely concerning,” noting it broke the standard chain of custody that governs how election materials are handled. She also suggested the investigation may serve a political purpose. “At this stage in the election, most voters haven’t really tuned into the gubernatorial race, and there are a ton of candidates,” Nalder said. “People who don’t know his background will know now. This is clear signaling.”
Bianco has denied the investigation is connected to his gubernatorial campaign. He acknowledged that his own yearslong probe of Riverside County election systems has “not found any mass fraud,” noting he has referred only “isolated incidents” to local prosecutors. It remains unclear whether any of those referrals have resulted in charges.
Studies have consistently found that voter fraud is rare in California and nationwide. A Heritage Foundation database shows just 71 voter fraud convictions in California over the past 32 years — a state that counted more than 11.5 million ballots in the November special election alone.
With the appellate court’s ruling directing Bonta to seek relief at the lower court level, the legal fight is expected to continue in Riverside County Superior Court. Bonta’s office has said it remains committed to resolving the matter quickly.
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