Judge's Ruling Expedites Hearing Over RivCo Sheriff Election Investigation

RIVERSIDE, CA — A judge ruled Thursday that she will grant California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s request to expedite a hearing over his lawsuit against Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who seized more than 650,000 ballots this year as part of an investigation into alleged voting irregularities in Riverside County in the 2025 Proposition 50 special election.

An attorney for the general’s office told Judge Dorothy McLaughlin the case should be expedited because the Riverside County’s registrar of voter no longer has the ballots Bianco seized.

McLaughlin scheduled another hearing on the lawsuit for April 13.

Bianco, who is currently running for governor, is facing multiple lawsuits and pushback over his investigation, including Bonta and a state Supreme Court case filed by the UCLA Voting Rights Project. Bonta attempted to halt Bianco's investigation by filing motions with appellate courts who routed him to Riverside Superior Court.

Critics of Proposition 50, which passed with 64.4 percent of votes, have argued that redrawing the state's congressional districts was unfair and gave Democrats advantage in future elections, including the midterms in November.

Bianco's office received three search warrants starting Feb. 10 and ignored lawful orders from Bonta to cease the investigation.

On Wednesday, a coalition of state media organizations demanded Bianco release the sealed warrants that contain alleged evidence the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said proves voting irregularities.

Bianco launched the alleged fraud investigation after the Riverside Election Integrity Team issued a complaint after the group said it found about a gap of about 45,800 votes when comparing ballots cast and ballots counted in Riverside County during the Proposition 50 special election.

The AG's office accused the watchdog group of using flawed methodology to count the ballots from last year's election, adding that only 103 votes are missing.

Bianco is one of two GOP candidates running for California governor, and both challengers performed strongly in recent polls.