The California Supreme Court issued two unanimous rulings on Thursday finding that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco broke state law by taking custody of more than 650,000 ballots earlier this year. The justices also determined that Bianco violated the law again when he refused to follow orders from Attorney General Rob Bonta to stop the seizure.
The court ordered Bianco to end his investigation into the ballots while Attorney General Bonta reviews the matter. In its decision, the court stated that Bonta is entitled to a writ of mandate requiring compliance with his directions. The justices rejected Bianco’s position that the state’s chief law enforcement officer must remain passive during investigations of statewide significance.
Bianco had argued before the court in August that a search warrant obtained from a judge was sufficient legal basis for removing the ballots, despite a state statute prohibiting election officials from having their ballots removed. He also contended that Bonta exceeded his authority by directing him to halt execution of the warrant.
The justices expressed skepticism toward these arguments last month and adopted a firm tone in Thursday’s ruling.
Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero wrote that Bianco’s arguments failed to persuade the court to interpret election law inconsistently with its plain text, which mandates that voted ballots remain in the custody of elections officials. Secretary of State Shirley Weber supported this view in a friend-of-the-court brief, stating that Bianco violated the clear mandate of the elections code.
The seizure occurred after the November 2025 special election, during which voters approved redrawing political boundaries to favor Democrats. Bianco took the ballots at the urging of members of the constitutional sheriff movement and local activists who cited discrepancies in preliminary vote counts. Riverside’s registrar of voters stated those claims were based on a misinterpretation of the data.
