By Roxsy Lin

ACoM

When the Riverside Sheriff’s Office seized 650,000 ballots from the local Registrar of Voters (ROV) to investigate unproven allegations of election fraud in early March it set off alarm bells.

Voting rights advocates say the move, following two similar seizures in Atlanta and Arizona, threaten to undermine trust in the election process.

The seizures were prompted by concerns raised by a group called Riverside Integrity Election Team, which alleged a discrepancy of 45,896 ballots between those cast and counted in the 2025 elections. According to the ROV the actual figure is around 103.

At a press conference on Friday, March 20, Riverside Sherriff Chad Bianco said the seizure was intended to “determine the validity of that alleged discrepancy.” He added his office would do so by physically counting the ballots, a move that prompted the Riverside County Superior Court to appoint a special master to oversee the process.

‘Chaos in the county’

In an interview with American Community Media, Joan Donahue, president of Riverside’s League of Women Voters, said the Riverside Integrity Election team’s contentions of a sizable discrepancy in ballots counted “were not accurate.”

She emphasized, nevertheless, that the group had repeatedly brought their concerns to both the Board of Supervisors and the Registrar of Voters.

According to Donahue, both agencies took those concerns seriously, met with members of the Integrity Election team several times, and worked to explain why the findings were considered inaccurate. Even after a three-hour Board of Supervisors workshop on February 10th, however, the group remained dissatisfied.

Still, all parties agreed to continue meeting and collaborating to resolve the issue. Donahue stressed that this ongoing collaboration was critical, calling it “key to a successful democracy.”

In her view, that process was abruptly broken when the Sheriff’s Department seized the ballots and launched an investigation into alleged irregularities.

By interrupting that collaboration, she argued, “all the Sheriff did was basically create some chaos in the county.” She also pointed out that at no point did the Board of Supervisors recommend an investigation or a recount, and that “the California Secretary of State has endorsed our registrar’s procedure and the final tally.”

A ‘fishing expedition’

In January FBI agents raided election offices in Georgia, part of President Trump’s false claims of election fraud in the 2020 elections. Earlier this month the FBI also seized election materials in Maricopa County, Arizona.

All of this comes as the White House is pushing to further limit access to the polls ahead of the November midterms.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit on March 24 asking the 4th District Court of Appeals to halt the investigation in Riverside. The court denied his request the following day.

In a statement to CalMatters, Bonta said the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office “is not equipped nor legally authorized to play the role of elections monitor,” adding that the inquiry appears to be “little more than a fishing expedition meant to sow distrust and undermine public confidence in our elections.”

For Donahue, a key concern relates to the ballots’ chain of custody, which she described as essential because ballots represent “the truth about voters’ intent.” She stressed that this chain ensures ballots remain secure and accountable, and warned that breaking it creates uncertainty.

She further expressed concern about the lack of transparency, explaining that key details remain unclear, including what the Sheriff told a judge to obtain warrants, the judge’s reasoning, and the role of a special master.

“We don’t know who that is… [or] what that person is doing,” she indicated, adding that “the sheriff seems to think that they’re just going to sit down and count through a bunch of ballots, but I think it is more complicated than that.”

Democracy a ‘fragile thing’

Riverside resident Ayo (who asked that we use only use his first name) suggested in an interview with ACoM that the counting should be conducted by “specialists who have either past experience with data of this nature or just past experience with these types of problems.”

But he also expressed support for the investigation. “[It] is going to be a beneficial decision in the long run […] ensuring that we have equitable processes with these voting systems,” he said. “I think now more than ever, we just need to focus on what we can do locally […] and ensure that we have very fair and equitable ways we measure voting.”

Another neighbor, who asked to remain unidentified, described the investigation as “just another power grab,” calling it “another step in the misinformation campaign that we’re having right now.” He warned it sets a troubling precedent. “This is a dangerous slippery slope. Democracy is a fragile thing.”

On March 23, Riverside Supervisor Jose Medina proposed launching an investigation into the alleged misuse of funds tied to Sheriff Bianco’s actions, according to The Riverside Record.

“I think Sheriff Bianco is very much blurring the line between his role of sheriff and him being a candidate for governor of the state of California” Medina told ACoM. Bianco, a Republican, is a candidate in the current race to replace outgoing California Governor Gavin Newsom.

“I met individually with the group [Riverside Integrity Election Team], and at no time did I ever see any evidence of irregularity in the procedures of the election of 2025. And so, I don’t think there’s any basis for Sheriff Chad Bianco to take the ballots from the Registrar of Voters,” indicated Medina.

The will of the voters

Yesterday, the California Department of Justice filed a petition with the Riverside County Superior Court requesting that the investigation be stopped, as reported by The Riverside Record.

The filing urges the court to require Bianco and his office to follow directives from Attorney General Rob Bonta, including suspending the probe and providing documents previously requested by the state, such as evidence used to justify the search warrants.

It further notes that on March 24, Bianco collected an additional 426 boxes of ballot materials from the Registrar of Voters, marking the completion of the three search warrants acquired to date.

“By disrupting all these processes that are put in place for our ballot security, he [Sherif Bianco] is undermining the will of the voters and eroding trust in the outcomes of our elections,” Donahue stressed, “without any credible evidence of any wrongdoing in the election to begin with.”

UPDATE:

On Saturday, March 28 Sheriff Bianco said in a statement to ABC 10News that the investigation was “on hold because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings.”

His statement came two days after CA Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a petition with the Riverside County Superior Court to stop the investigation. That same day, the UCLA Voting Rights Project also filed a petition with the State Supreme Court seeking the return of the seized ballots.

The Riverside Record, meanwhile, reports that, according to a new court filing by Sheriff Bianco’s attorney, Robert Tyler, the Sheriff’s Office was unable to appoint a “special master” to oversee the recount as instructed by the court.

The report also states that, according to Tyler, the department was “not counting ballots and has no intention of counting the ballots unless the courts otherwise permit.”