Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff and a Republican gubernatorial candidate, said his office has put on hold a probe into election fraud allegations after legal challenges from California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a voting rights group.
In a statement Saturday, Bianco said the probe was halted “because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings,” according to the Associated Press. The pause came after Bonta and the UCLA Voting Rights Project launched legal challenges last week, arguing the sheriff lacks authority over election materials.
Bianco has been a focal point in a dispute that began in February and escalated this month, when he seized election materials tied to a complaint about ballot counting from a local citizens group related to a November 2025 special election on redistricting. Local election officials had told the county Board of Supervisors last month that the complaint was unfounded, the Associated Press reported.
The controversy intensified after Bonta directed Bianco to stop his investigation. According to the report, the sheriff seized 1,000 boxes of election materials earlier this month, and then, after receiving orders from Bonta’s office to stop, Bianco took more ballots from a county election office, before pausing the probe this weekend.
Bianco previously told reporters that the investigation and the seizure of more than 650,000 ballots cast in the November election were legal and approved by a Riverside County judge. The Associated Press report said the sheriff had doubled down on that position last week by taking additional ballots.
Bonta’s office said Monday it would continue with its legal petitions in the California Supreme Court and in superior court. “Our focus is on what the Sheriff does, not what he says,” a spokesperson for Bonta’s office said in a statement, according to the Associated Press report.
The UCLA Voting Rights Project filed a petition on behalf of several Riverside County voters on Monday, seeking action from the state Supreme Court. The group, as described by the Associated Press, asked the court to order Bianco to return the ballots while the case plays out, and attorney Sonni Waknin said the group believes election law requires voted ballots to remain in the custody of election officials.
Bianco’s ballot seizures also came amid a wider U.S. political environment in which President Donald Trump has repeatedly disputed the results of the 2020 election, citing allegations of fraud. The Associated Press report said some Republicans have mirrored Trump’s rhetoric on voting in their states, as the legal fight over the ballots in Riverside County continues.