California sheriff running for governor seizes over 650,000 ballots from 2025 election

Republican Chad Bianco investigating Prop 50 vote despite officials denying claims of ballots being cast unlawfully A California sheriff who is running as a Republican for governor has seized more than 650,000 ballots from last year’s election, escalating an ongoing conflict with state officials. Chad Bianco, Riverside county’s sheriff, says he is carrying out an investigation into allegations that ballots were unlawfully cast in last year’s election that resulted in the passage of Proposition 50. The proposition redrew congressional districts to help gerrymander the state in favor of Democrats, in response to similar measures in Republican states like Texas. Election officials and the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, have both dismissed those allegations. The discrepancy between the machine count and the final count submitted to the state is only 103 votes, according to the Riverside Record. Bianco’s investigators obtained the ballots after serving the registrar of voters with search warrants last month, he said on Friday at a press conference. A Riverside superior court judge appointed a special master to count the ballots, Bianco said. “This investigation is simple: physi