California Sheriff Seizes 650,000 Ballots Based on Debunked Fraud Claims—While Running for Governor

When Law Enforcement Becomes Election Interference

A California sheriff seized 650,000 ballots earlier this year based on fraud allegations that election officials had already investigated and dismissed as false. The move has set off alarm bells among voting rights advocates who see it as a blueprint for how local law enforcement can weaponize debunked conspiracy theories to undermine public confidence in elections.

Chad Bianco, the Republican sheriff of Riverside County, obtained sealed warrants in February and March to seize ballots from Proposition 50, a November 2025 referendum on congressional redistricting. The measure passed overwhelmingly—by nearly 30 points statewide and more than 82,000 votes in Riverside County alone. There were no accusations of fraud, no irregularities reported by election officials, and no recount requested by any campaign or party.

So why did Bianco seize the ballots? He claimed to be investigating allegations from a citizen activist group that found a discrepancy of 45,896 between ballots cast and counted. There was just one problem: county election officials had already examined those claims and determined they were based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how ballot counting works.

The Fraud That Wasn't

Art Tinoco, Riverside County's registrar of voters, told the county board of supervisors in February that the activists' analysis was "misleading." The group had compared raw ballot submission numbers against final vote totals without accounting for the verification process that happens in between.

Here's how it actually works: When a mail ballot arrives, election officials first verify the signature and other information to ensure the voter is eligible and hasn't already voted. Only after that verification does the ballot get submitted for counting. The activists ignored this entire step, creating a phantom discrepancy where none existed.

When Tinoco's office compared the data correctly, they found 103 more ballots counted than voters recorded—a minimal difference well within California's acceptable margin and consistent with what other counties experienced. In other words, the system worked exactly as designed.

Bianco told the San Francisco Chronicle he planned to conduct a hand recount of the ballots—a method experts say is actually more prone to error than machine counting—and that he expected the totals to match "exactly." He also told the Washington Post he would consider seizing ballots from the June 2 primary if questions arose about those results.

A Sheriff With Connections—and Ambitions

Bianco isn't just any local law enforcement official. He's currently running for governor of California and is closely competing to be one of the top two finishers in the June 2 primary. This week, Donald Trump endorsed one of Bianco's Republican rivals, Steve Hilton, potentially adding pressure to Bianco's campaign.

The sheriff also has a documented history with far-right groups and the activists pushing the fraud claims. Bianco was briefly a member of the Oath Keepers, the extremist organization whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

According to a 2024 podcast obtained by the Campaign Legal Center, Shelby Bunch, a member of the Riverside Election Integrity Team that made the fraud allegations, described a years-long relationship with Bianco. "Everything I found went straight to the sheriff, because I knew [him] to be mindful. And so, that's what helped us get him to open the investigation," Bunch said.

In other words, an activist group with a predetermined conclusion about election fraud had a direct line to a law enforcement official willing to act on their claims—even after those claims had been debunked by actual election professionals.

The Attorney General Steps In

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued to stop Bianco's investigation last month, calling it an "amateur and dubious 'recount'" that "threatens to sow distrust and jeopardize public confidence in the upcoming primary and general elections, not just in Riverside county but around the state."

In a March 4 letter to Bianco, Bonta wrote: "Your decision to seize ballots and begin counting them based on vague, unsubstantiated allegations about irregularities in the November special election results sets a dangerous precedent and will only sow distrust in our elections."

Days after the lawsuit was filed, Bianco announced he was halting the investigation "because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings." But the attorney general's litigation seeking a court order to stop the investigation is still ongoing, and the warrants remain sealed—meaning there's no way for the public to evaluate what evidence, if any, Bianco presented to convince a judge to authorize the seizure.

Bianco denied politics played any role in his actions. "I appreciate everyone's opinion when they obtained their expertise from television," he said in a statement. "Any investigation is a fact-finding mission to determine if allegations are true or not, and who, if anyone, is responsible. Disingenuous politicians and clickbait media have spun this into something political."

He added: "This investigation was kept very quiet by me; it was twisted into a political event and brought to the public by an absolute embarrassment to law enforcement, Rob Bonta. The only undermining of confidence in our elections is the abuse of the legal system to stop a lawful investigation to cover up the results."

A Familiar Playbook

The Riverside case closely mirrors what's happening in Fulton County, Georgia, where the Justice Department has conducted an investigation into the 2020 election. There, the FBI relied on disproven claims promoted by citizen activists to convince a magistrate judge to sign off on a search warrant to seize ballots from four years ago.

To obtain a search warrant, prosecutors must convince a judge there is probable cause that a crime has occurred. In Fulton County, experts have said the underlying affidavit does not establish probable cause. In Riverside County, because the warrants remain sealed, there's no way to evaluate whether Bianco met that standard.

What both cases demonstrate is how sheriffs and other officials can transform shoddy allegations into law enforcement actions that disrupt the chain of custody critical to maintaining ballot integrity—and plant the idea in the public's mind that a crime occurred, even when none did.

"Until evidence is actually provided, it seems like the Riverside sheriff is out there chasing ghosts," said Darius Kemp, executive director of the California chapter of Common Cause, a non-partisan watchdog group. "I think Californians are some of the smartest people in the country, and I think they see what the actions by the Riverside sheriff are, which is a blatant political ploy to try to undermine our voting systems in the state."

The Danger Ahead

With the June 2 primary approaching and the general election just months away, Bianco's actions have created a template that other officials could follow. Seize ballots based on debunked claims. Announce an investigation. Let the headlines do the work of undermining confidence in the results. If anyone tries to stop you, claim they're engaged in a cover-up.

The fact that Bianco only halted his investigation after facing a lawsuit from the state's top law enforcement official—and that the legal battle continues—suggests this won't be the last time we see this playbook deployed.

When law enforcement officials with political ambitions and connections to election denial activists can obtain warrants to seize ballots based on allegations already proven false, the integrity of the electoral system itself becomes a political football. And that's exactly what these actions are designed to accomplish: not to uncover fraud, but to manufacture doubt where none should exist.