Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seizes more ballots in election probe, ignoring California officials’ orders to stop

AENN

by: Vivian Chow

Posted: Mar 27, 2026 / 06:20 PM PDT

Updated: Mar 27, 2026 / 06:20 PM PDT

SHARE

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has seized more ballots from last November’s election as part of his continued push to investigate claims of voter fraud that state officials say are unsubstantiated.

Bianco, a leading Republican candidate in the California governor’s race, said in a March 20 news conference that he was tipped off to a large voter discrepancy in last November’s special election involving Prop. 50, a redistricting measure that redrew the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats.

On March 24, Bianco seized 426 boxes of ballot materials from county elections officials. The move follows a previous seizure of about 1,000 boxes in February, which contained more than 650,000 ballots.

Bianco began the investigation after claiming an activist group called the Riverside Election Integrity Team had tipped him off to a large voter discrepancy in last November’s special election. Bianco said the seizure warrant was approved by a judge.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks at a news conference. (KTLA)

“Our investigation will determine the validity of the alleged discrepancy and if found true, we will determine the cause,” Bianco said. “We will do that by physically counting the ballots.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit to halt Bianco’s investigation, citing both legal and ethical concerns.