The California Supreme Court is considering whether Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco must return seized election ballots to county election officials, following oral arguments Monday in a case that has drawn intense scrutiny over the balance between election integrity and law enforcement authority.

The high court heard arguments regarding Bianco’s seizure of approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on redistricting. The measure passed in the county by roughly 80,000 votes. Bianco, who was running for governor at the time, seized 1,000 boxes of election materials in March to investigate a complaint from a local citizens group that the count was off — though not by an amount that would have changed the outcome. Local election officials had previously said the complaint was unfounded.

Legal Challenges and Arguments

Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta launched a legal challenge in March, arguing the sheriff has no authority over election materials and warning the seizure was designed to sow distrust in elections. Bonta ordered Bianco to return the ballots, but Bianco did not. The University of California, Los Angeles Voting Rights Project also sued the sheriff on behalf of several Riverside County voters. The state Supreme Court heard arguments in both cases.

Chad Dunn, legal director and co-founder of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, told the court there are mechanisms to contest election results, and Bianco failed to follow them. “Nowhere else in election law, in this state, in any other that I’m familiar with, does anybody get to handle ballots on their own in the back room with their deputies,” Dunn said.

Bradley Hertz, who represented Bianco, argued the sheriff had a legal duty to open an 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 registrar of voters because those ballots are being held as evidence and the sheriff is safeguarding them as a custodian for the court.

Background and Context

Bianco began recounting the vote using sheriff’s officials under the supervision of a special master appointed by a court, but he suspended the recount days later, citing mounting legal challenges from the state attorney general and a voting rights group. As of the hearing, Bianco had not returned the ballots.

The seizure occurred amid a national debate over redistricting and after President Donald Trump repeatedly disputed the results of the 2020 election, citing unsubstantiated instances of fraud, and his administration seized ballots in Georgia. Bianco obtained search warrants from a judge who had been a political ally.

Bianco did not advance to the general election in the gubernatorial primary, and he 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.

Additional details from the Spokane Spokesman-Review’s coverage indicate that Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco testified that no official complaint was filed within the legal time period. Bonta’s lawsuit described Bianco’s investigation as “amateurish and dubious” and “misguided.” A new state law making it a felony to take ballots from a county registrar of voters was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom after the seizure.

The court has not yet issued a ruling.