California Republican sheriff Chad Bianco must return more than 650,000 ballots his department confiscated earlier this year in an unprecedented move that violated election law, a state supreme court ruled on Thursday.
“Allowing law enforcement unfettered access to ballots, or the ability to handle and count them in secret, based on unregulated protocols, itself creates a substantial risk to election integrity,” chief justice Patricia Guerrero wrote in a Thursday opinion.
During a November 2025 special election, California voters passed Proposition 50, a redistricting amendment designed to counteract Republican-led gerrymandering in Texas.
The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco’s Riverside county by roughly 80,000 votes.
After the election, a county citizen activist group claimed there was a discrepancy in the total vote count. Local election officials have said the complaint was unfounded.
The Riverside county sheriff’s department launched an inquiry into the fraud claims, obtaining search warrants to assume custody of the ballots and other election materials.
Democratic attorney general Rob Bonta immediately launched a legal challenge, arguing Bianco had no authority over election materials and warning the seizure was designed to sow distrust in elections. He ordered Bianco to return the ballots, but Bianco did not.
In court, Bianco’s attorneys argued the top prosecutor could not give directions to a sheriff about an active investigation.
“Respondents’ arguments all boil down to the unsustainable view that the state’s chief law enforcement officer … must remain a mere bystander to an unprecedented sheriff’s investigation of undeniable statewide significance. As we have explained, that is not the case,” Guerrero wrote in a separate Thursday ruling.
California governor Gavin Newsom praised the court’s decision.
“Today’s ruling affirms that in California we will defend democracy – using every branch of government,” he said in a statement. “People deserve to know their ballot is counted and secure, and in California we will do everything we can to protect that constitutional right – this year, and beyond.”
Newsom on Saturday signed a bill that would prevent anyone from seizing ballots, as Bianco did.
“The new laws I signed just last week add new protections so attacks like this cannot happen again,” Newsom said on Thursday.
Bianco’s ballot investigation came as Donald Trump has repeatedly disputed the results of the 2020 election, citing unsubstantiated instances of fraud. His administration in January seized ballots and other documents from an election office in Georgia. Some Republicans have mirrored Trump’s rhetoric on voting in their states. Election officials and civil rights groups have been following the Bianco case carefully as they brace for the possibility that Trump or his allies may try to seize ballots in November.
