California AG Bonta petitions court to stop Sheriff Bianco’s ballot probe in 2025 Riverside County special election

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) California Attorney General Rob Bonta has gone to court to try to halt Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s investigation into the November 2025 special election, arguing the sheriff is pursuing a ballot-counting probe without identifying a specific crime and in defiance of state directives.    

In a petition filed March 23 in California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, Bonta’s office asked for immediate relief, including a stay of Bianco’s investigation and a stay of execution of a search warrant signed March 19, 2026. The filing says the attorney general is seeking expedited review.    

The court filing marks a sharp escalation in the public dispute between Bonta and Bianco after the sheriff said at a March 20 news conference that the investigation would continue. In the petition, the attorney general’s office says Bianco’s office seized roughly 1,000 boxes of ballots and other election materials and began what the state describes as an amateur recount tied to claims of discrepancies in Riverside County’s certified election results.      

At the center of the dispute are allegations raised by a community group, the Riverside Election Integrity Team, or REIT. According to Bonta’s petition, the group claimed its review of records showed 611,426 valid ballots were cast, while the county’s public tally showed 657,322 votes counted - a difference of about 45,896. The filing says no formal election contest was initiated under California law.    

Bonta’s office argues California law already provides civil procedures to challenge election results or request a recount, and says Bianco instead used criminal search warrants without establishing probable cause that a felony had been committed. The petition repeatedly argues the March 19 warrant, like earlier warrants, failed to identify a specific felony offense or a particular suspect.    

The filing also says Bonta, acting under his constitutional and statutory supervisory authority over sheriffs, first directed Bianco on Feb. 26 to preserve all seized election materials and pause further action while the attorney general’s office reviewed the basis for the investigation. In that letter, Bonta said his office was concerned the affidavits supporting the warrants identified no specific felony offense and no particular person believed to have committed one.  

A second letter sent March 4 warned Bianco not to begin counting seized ballots with sheriff’s department employees “who are not trained and have no experience counting ballots,” and said moving forward would “only sow distrust in our elections.” Bonta told Bianco to stand down or face legal action.  

Court exhibits included with the petition show that on March 5 at 1:30 p.m., Bianco emailed the attorney general’s office saying he had received the March 4 letter and was “complying with the directive of the letter pending further communication.” But Bonta’s petition says the sheriff later returned to court and obtained a third warrant on March 19 to restart the ballot count.    

Bonta’s office says that move violated the attorney general’s directives and further undercut the state’s ability to supervise the investigation. The petition also says the attorney general still had not received the full case file and did not know whether a special master had been appointed or whether any recount had resumed.  

The filing points to Bianco’s own public comments as evidence the sheriff is conducting a broad fact-finding effort rather than investigating a clearly identified crime. The petition quotes Bianco as saying the investigation is “just as much to prove the election is accurate as it is to show otherwise” and describes that statement as proof the sheriff is not pursuing a traditional criminal case with a defined suspect or offense.    

Bonta’s office also says Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco had already publicly challenged the underlying discrepancy claims. According to the petition, Tinoco told county supervisors in February that the outside group relied on incomplete information, raw data and handwritten forms not used to determine official vote counts.  

In a statement to KESQ, Bonta’s office also said the California Secretary of State’s Office is willing to review the sheriff’s allegations “to put to rest any remaining concerns,” offering a separate state review even as the attorney general asks the court to stop Bianco’s investigation.

This is a developing story and will be updated with further information as it becomes available.