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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco remains defiant as the California Supreme Court deliberates whether he has to return approximately 650,000 ballots he seized from a November 2025 special election on redistricting.
The court heard arguments Monday from Bianco’s lawyers and from California, where the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta launched a legal challenge to Bianco’s ballot seizures in March, ordering him to return the ballots.
Bianco, however, refused, arguing through his legal team that he had a legal obligation to investigate the ballots after receiving a complaint.
“I did this, and this was legal,” Bianco told reporters. “I went a different route. They are legal. Both routes are legal. It’s just their side doesn’t like the route I chose.”
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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco arrives at the Supreme Court of California for a hearing about his seizure and recount of more than half a million 2025 election ballots on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Bianco is still holding the ballots, his lawyer Bradley Hertz told reporters Monday, arguing that they are evidence.
“The sheriff is holding that evidence, safeguarding it as a custodian for the court,” Hertz said.
The ballots are from a November 2025 special election in which state voters decided on Proposition 50, a legislative redistricting measure that passed by more than 3.4 million votes, according to the California Secretary of State.
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Bianco, however, appeared to question whether the official count was valid.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco arrives at the Supreme Court of California for a hearing about his seizure and recount of more than half a million 2025 election ballots on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
“How strange, that now we have evidence that the machines counted something different than the ballots that we have, and an Attorney General runs in to stop that investigation so that we’ll never know,” Bianco said outside the courthouse.
In filing his March legal challenge to Bianco’s ballot seizures, Bonta joined the UCLA Voting Rights Project, which launched a separate legal challenge to Bianco’s actions.
“This is a sheriff that – despite the clear language in the California constitution, and in California government code, providing me direct supervision, authority over him – failed to comply with it,” Bonta told reporters outside the courthouse Monday.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks after a hearing about Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s seizure and recount of more than half a million 2025 election ballots on Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, at California Supreme Court in San Francisco. (Alicia Ramirez/The Riverside Record, Pool)
“He can read, he knows what it says, it makes his violations even more egregious,” Bonta also said.
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Bianco, for his part, challenged Bonta’s interpretation of California code. “If you take it word for word, in that context, it means that he has direct authority that if I’m not doing my job he can order me to do it and if I don’t do it he can do it for me. But he cannot stop an investigation.”
Fox News Digital contacted the UCLA Voting Rights Project, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office and the California Attorney General’s Office for further comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.