California asks court to halt Riverside sheriff’s recount of 2025 election ballots

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 Republican who is running for governor, seized roughly 650,000 ballots and began conducting a recount of votes. At a press conference Friday, he characterized the investigation as a “fact-finding mission” that is intended “just as much to prove the election is accurate as it is to show otherwise.” 

Bianco is neck-and-neck with Republican Steve Hilton for lead in the race for governor, polls show.

Bonta’s office this month ordered Bianco and the Riverside County Sheriff Department to pause its work, citing “grave concerns” over the legality of the criminal investigation. 

The state Justice Department instructed the sheriff’s department to share any information that could substantiate its concerns in order to understand the basis for the investigation. 

Those orders went unheeded, according to court filings. The lawsuit in the 4th District Court of Appeal, filed Monday, asks that the court intervene in order “to prevent further abuse of the criminal process.”  

“The Sheriff has not identified any particular crime that may have been committed by anyone — a necessary predicate to obtain a criminal search warrant,” said the attorney general’s office in a statement to CalMatters. “The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office is not equipped nor legally authorized to play the role of elections monitor. By all appearances, this investigation is little more than a fishing expedition meant to sow distrust and undermine public confidence in our elections.”

Bonta has taken particular issue with the sworn statements that Bianco has made to a Riverside County judge to obtain warrants allowing him to seize the ballots. The sheriff got two warrants in February and another last week after receiving a complaint about ballot discrepancies from a Riverside County citizens’ group. Bonta has said the sheriff’s department statements his office reviewed did not establish enough probable cause to justify seizing election materials. 

None of the sworn statements or the evidence Bianco presented can be judged by the public because the warrants are under seal in the Riverside County Superior Court and redacted in Bonta’s court filings over the issue. The warrants were approved by Judge Jay Kiel, a former prosecutor who ran for the seat in 2022 with Bianco’s endorsement.

The citizens’ group claimed Riverside County elections officials overstated the number of ballots counted in the November special election over Democrat-drawn congressional maps. Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco has denied the group’s claims and told county supervisors last month the group was using incomplete data that did not include confidential, provisional and other ballots his office received. 

In a statement to CalMatters, Bianco criticized Bonta, a Democrat who has been the state’s top law enforcement officer since 2021.

“The questions should be directed only toward Bonta. Why would you interfere and obstruct an investigation instead of assist? What are you afraid of? Bonta is a corrupt political activist put in place by Gavin Newsom to run cover for the corruption in Sacramento,” Bianco said.

Voter fraud is rare in California and nationwide, studies have consistently found. A database maintained by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization that often highlights the issue, shows just 71 cases of voter fraud convictions in California over the past 32 years. California counted more than 11.5 million ballots in the November special election alone. 

Bianco last week said that his own yearslong probe of election systems in Riverside County has “not found any mass fraud.” He said he had uncovered “isolated incidents” that he’s referred to local prosecutors. It was unclear if any have resulted in charges. 

Kim Nalder, a political science professor at Sacramento State University, called Bianco’s seizure of the ballots “extremely concerning, to see a local sheriff interceding in an area that is not really supposed to be his jurisdiction.” In particular, she pointed out that elections officials typically have rules over who can handle ballots, but the seizure broke that “chain of custody.” 

“Any recount would have lots of safeguards for manipulation,” she said. “There’s no guarantee of that at this point, even if the state succeeds in stopping them from going forward.”

Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow.