California Supreme Court Halts Riverside Ballot Probe

The California Supreme Court ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco to pause his investigation into the 2025 Proposition 50 election ballots on Wednesday. The court's decision comes amid a legal challenge from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who argued that Bianco's actions were destabilizing and politically motivated.

According to multiple reports, Bianco's office seized more than 611,000 ballots from the election, which overwhelmingly approved a congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Governor Gavin Newsom. The probe was initiated after a local Riverside County group alleged a possible discrepancy of about 45,800 votes between the California Secretary of State and votes counted by electronic machines.

The court's order requires Bianco to preserve all seized ballots while the legal challenge is reviewed. Bonta stated that the decision 'reins in' Bianco, who is also a major Republican candidate in June's upcoming gubernatorial primary election. The attorney general's office had previously found deficiencies in the warrants used to seize the ballots.

Bianco defended his investigation as a 'fact-finding mission,' stating that it aimed to physically count the ballots and compare the results with the total votes reported. However, local election officials disputed the claims of fraud, asserting that the vote-counting discrepancy was much closer to 103 votes.

The California Supreme Court's intervention follows a denied appeal by Bonta in a lower court. The court also agreed to review the case on its merits, with briefings expected in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, Bianco expressed confidence that the investigation would resume despite the attorney general's efforts to halt it.