Riverside County Sheriff Bianco, Calif. AG Bonta clash over 2025 election probe
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KESQ) Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco accused California Attorney General Rob Bonta during a Friday press conference of trying to stop or delay his office’s investigation into the November 2025 special election. Bianco, a Republican candidate for governor, said the investigation has “absolutely nothing to do” with his campaign.
Bianco said the sheriff’s office began investigating possible election fraud in October 2022, and that work later led to a Feb. 9, 2026 warrant for election materials tied to the 2025 special election.
At the center of Bianco’s claims is what he described as a discrepancy between handwritten ballot intake logs and the number of votes reported and certified to the state. Bianco said citizen volunteers reviewing public records concluded that 611,428 ballots were cast, while 657,322 votes were reported a difference of 45,896 votes.
He said the Riverside County Registrar of Voters told investigators the office did not rely on those logs and instead used machine counts showing a much smaller deviation attributed to human error.
“I hope we can all agree there is no acceptable error, small or large, in our elections,” Bianco said. He said his office wants to physically count the ballots as part of what he described as a fact-finding investigation, not a recount.
Bianco also said the ballot count had started, then stopped, and will now restart under court supervision with a special master. He said a representative from Bonta’s office asked him to pause the investigation until after March 6, and that his office later received letters dated Feb. 26 and March 4 directing him to halt further action. “There is no legal justification for the Attorney General to stop a lawful investigation,” Bianco said.
But in a redacted Feb. 26 letter provided to KESQ News Channel 3, Bonta’s office described the request more narrowly. In that letter, Bonta wrote that Division of Law Enforcement Chief Stephen Woolery asked Bianco to provide affidavits supporting the warrants and to briefly defer further warrant execution until March 6 so the Attorney General’s Office could review the basis for the search. The letter also says the sheriff’s office seized about 1,000 boxes of ballots and other election materials tied to the November 2025 special election.
That same letter says the Attorney General’s Office had concerns that the affidavits identified no specific felony offenses or suspects and may have omitted material facts. Bonta directed the sheriff to preserve the seized materials and pause further action while the state reviewed the matter.
In a redacted March 4 letter provided to KESQ News Channel 3, Bonta wrote that his office had learned Bianco planned to begin counting seized ballots on March 5 using sheriff’s department staff “who are not trained and have no experience counting ballots.” Bonta called that “unacceptable,” said it would “only sow distrust in our elections,” and warned the state was prepared to seek legal recourse unless Bianco stood down further action.
In a statement provided to KESQ News Channel 3 by the Attorney General’s Office, Bonta said he was “surprised and disappointed” by Bianco’s comments and said the sheriff had “delayed, stonewalled, and otherwise refused to work with us in good faith.” Bonta also said what the state had reviewed so far raised “serious questions about the merits” of the investigation and described the allegations as claims already refuted by the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.
KESQ News Channel 3, received the following statement from Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen on Sheriff Bianco's press conference.
"All five members of the Board of Supervisors and the Registrar of Voters are committed to safe, secure, accurate, and lawful elections in Riverside County.
County election staff follow detailed procedures established by state and federal law to protect the integrity of the vote and to ensure that every eligible ballot is processed and counted in accordance with those legal requirements.
The County and the Registrar of Voters will continue to comply with all lawful court orders and with all legal obligations applicable to election materials and election administration.
Because this is an active law enforcement matter, the County will not comment on the Sheriff’s investigation or on statements made by the Sheriff today. Questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Our focus remains where it belongs: supporting public confidence in the election process and ensuring the Registrar of Voters is fully prepared to administer the upcoming June 2 Primary Election."
Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen
Bianco pushed back Friday, saying the investigation is meant to determine whether the reported numbers are accurate.
“The purpose of this investigation is just as much to prove the election is accurate as it is to show otherwise,” he said.
At Friday's press conference Bianco said the investigation is ongoing. Bonta says his office may take further action.
KESQ is working to get new answers on both fronts, and we’ll have more tonight as this story develops.
