SAN FRANCISCO — A Republican California sheriff must return more than a half-million ballots he seized for an investigation into unfounded voting improprieties in a special election last year, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco in February seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on statewide congressional redistricting favorable to Democrats and pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco's county by roughly 80,000 votes.
The court called the ballots’ seizure “unlawful,” saying California law requires voted ballots to remain in the custody and control of election officials, even during a criminal investigation. Bianco must also “refrain from further handling of the ballots except as necessary to comply with our order,” the court said in an unanimous decision. Bianco did not immediately comment on the ruling.
“If election misconduct is suspected, the Elections Code provides several mechanisms for law enforcement to review and examine ballots without compromising their integrity,” the court wrote.
Bianco's ballot investigation came as President 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.
Bianco said he confiscated the election materials as part of a criminal investigation after receiving a complaint from a local citizens group that the count was off. Local election officials had previously said the complaint was unfounded. Bianco, was running for governor at the time, but he did not make it through the primary.
Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta immediately launched a legal challenge, arguing the sheriff 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.
“The Court has now made clear that this kind of defiance cannot stand, that the Attorney General has the authority to intervene when sheriffs take improper action, and that voted ballots belong in the custody of elections officials,” Bonta said Thursday.
The University of California, Los Angeles Voting Rights Project also sued the sheriff and the Riverside County Registrar of Voters on behalf of several Riverside County voters. The state Supreme Court last month heard arguments in both cases.
The Court also found that a search warrant does not override the state's electoral law.
“The Court’s decision reaffirms a basic principle that in California, the Election Code applies to everyone, including law enforcement,” said Chad Dunn, legal director and co-founder of the UCLA Voting Rights Project. “These are the voters’ ballots. They must be protected through the processes the Legislature has established. This ruling provides important clarity for election officials, law enforcement, and voters across California.”
Newsom on Saturday signed a bill that would prevent anyone from seizing ballots, as Bianco did.
Bianco began recounting the vote shortly after seizing the ballots using sheriff's officials under the supervision of a special master appointed by a court but suspended it days later, citing mounting legal challenges from the state attorney general and the voting rights group. But he has not returned the ballots.
Bradley Hertz, who represented Bianco before the court, argued the sheriff had a legal duty to open a criminal investigation after receiving a complaint and he followed the penal code to carry out that investigation, first issuing search warrants in February.
Hertz said Bianco has not returned the ballots to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters because those ballots are “evidence.”
At the time of the ballots’ seizure, Bianco was one of two prominent Republicans running for governor in a crowded June primary. He did not advance to the general election and later announced plans to run for reelection as sheriff in 2028.
Xavier Becerra, a former state attorney general and Democrat running for governor, is part of the UCLA lawsuit to halt Bianco's efforts.