The California Supreme Court has ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to halt his election probe – and preserve the ballots he’s seized – as it weighs a case challenging his actions, multiple outlets reported.
Earlier this year, Bianco, who’s also a Republican candidate for California governor, seized more than 650,000 ballots cast in a 2025 special election involving a redistricting ballot measure. He argued that he did so to investigate alleged counting discrepancies that have also been raised by a conservative group. Election officials, meanwhile, have disputed these claims.
Bianco’s actions have drawn multiple lawsuits, including from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has argued that the sheriff lacks legal grounds for the probe and is sowing distrust in elections by pursuing it. Bianco’s investigation into claims of alleged fraud also echoes similar unfounded claims President Donald Trump has long made about the 2020 election.
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The California Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would hear Bonta’s challenge and that Bianco was required to cease his investigation while it considered the suit and “preserve all seized items.”
In a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, Bianco said that he plans to continue advocating for the inquiry.
“We are still at the hold of a court so we are not allowed to progress with the counting of the ballots, and we’ll just continue fighting for this for you,” he said.
Bianco told The Washington Post that he would think about seizing the ballots in California’s upcoming gubernatorial primary, too, if questions emerged about the way that contest was handled.
Both Bonta and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) welcomed the court’s order on Wednesday.
“Today’s decision is a victory for democracy and the rule of law,” Newsom said in a statement on social media. “This rogue sheriff chased conspiracy theories, tried to undermine our elections, and got the ruling he deserved. Trump and MAGA’s election denialism is a cancer, a danger to our democracy, and it must be stopped.”
