US EditionRiverside County Sheriff Insists Election Investigation Is Not Politically Motivated
- On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed an emergency petition with the Fourth District Court of Appeal seeking to halt Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco's criminal investigation into the November 2025 special election.
- The investigation originated from claims by the Riverside Election Integrity Team alleging a 45,896-vote discrepancy in the Proposition 50 election, prompting Bianco to launch the probe based on the group's complaint.
- Bonta's office argues the sheriff's search warrants lack probable cause and identify no specific crime, while Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco contends the alleged discrepancy is actually just 103 votes from misreading incomplete data.
- During a news conference on Friday, March 20, Bianco, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, defended the probe as a 'fact-finding mission' and called Bonta an 'embarrassment to law enforcement.'
- The case highlights jurisdictional tensions over whether the Riverside County Sheriff Department has legal authority to conduct independent ballot counts without identifying a specific crime, an issue now before the appellate court.
22 Articles
22 Articles
California calls on court to stop Riverside sheriff’s recount of special election ballots
An official ballot drop box in San Diego County. (File photo courtesy of San Diego County’s Office of Communications) This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Attorney General Rob Bonta is asking a California court to halt the Riverside County Sheriff Department’s effort to recount ballots from the November 2025 special election. In an unprecedented move, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republica…
State AG takes Riverside County sheriff to court over seized ballots
Chad Bianco, who is a leading Republican candidate for governor, seized more than 650,000 ballots cast in the election for Proposition 50, which temporarily redrew the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats.
California Democrats panic as doomsday gubernatorial poll drops
California Democrats are facing a nightmarish scenario in the 2026 governor’s race as new polling shows two Republicans — former Fox News host Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — leading the field of the June 2 primary election.
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