California court orders sheriff to return seized election ballots

California’s Supreme Court has ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to return more than 650,000 ballots seized during an investigation into alleged voting irregularities, ruling unanimously Thursday that state law requires election officials to retain custody of voted ballots.

The justices ordered Bianco to stop the investigation and “refrain from further handling of the ballots except as necessary to comply with our order.” In a separate unanimous ruling, the court found that he had ignored directives from Attorney General Rob Bonta to pause the probe.

“In short, Bianco’s arguments fail to persuade us that we should interpret section 15551 in a manner inconsistent with its plain text, which mandates that voted ballots remain in the custody of elections officials,” the court wrote.

Bianco, a Republican who lost his bid for governor in the primary, seized the ballots in February as part of a criminal investigation into a complaint from a local group. The ballots were cast in a November 2025 special election on Proposition 50, a statewide congressional redistricting measure backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Voters approved the measure, which made five Republican-held U.S. House seats more favorable to Democrats in this year’s midterm elections. It passed in Riverside County by roughly 80,000 votes, The Guardian reported.

Bianco said the group’s complaint pointed to a possible discrepancy of about 45,800 votes in figures reported to the California secretary of state. He called his inquiry a “fact-finding mission.” County election officials disputed the allegation, saying the difference between the machine count and the final count submitted to the state was about 100 votes.

The seizure prompted legal challenges from Bonta and UCLA’s Voting Rights Project, which sued on behalf of Riverside County voters. Local leaders also sought the ballots’ return to the county registrar. According to CBS News, Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, one of those petitioners, said the ballots were held at an undisclosed location while the case proceeded.

Bonta ordered Bianco to return the ballots, but the sheriff did not comply. Bianco said in late March that he would pause his investigation “because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings.” The Supreme Court formally halted the probe in April. During oral arguments, Bianco described the case as a question of whether “a corrupt attorney general can stop a lawful investigation.”

Bianco did not immediately comment on Thursday’s rulings. The Riverside County registrar said it “will continue to comply with all lawful court orders and with all legal obligations applicable to election materials and election administration.”

“I’m grateful that our State Supreme Court reaffirmed my authority as Attorney General to supervise county sheriffs,” Bonta said. “This was an extraordinary situation that required extraordinary action.”

Newsom, who signed new ballot-protection legislation the previous weekend, said the ruling affirmed California’s commitment to protecting elections. “People deserve to know their ballot is counted and secure,” he said.