Riverside Sheriff's Ballot Seizure Built on Thin Evidence

And now this report from CalMatters, the independent statewide journalism project.

The Riverside County sheriff who seized hundreds of thousands of election ballots from the Proposition 50 race got his search warrant from a political crony, and it was based on zero insider tipsters, not one witness, and no independent analyses from election experts.

Chad Bianco, who is one of two Republicans running for governor, seized hundreds of thousands of ballots. The sheriff's investigators instead presented claims from a group of self-proclaimed independent election experts that is described as the equivalent of "flat earthers."

Riverside County's top elections official says the claims of supposed miscounted ballots were based on flawed and incomplete data.

An elected judge, who had been endorsed by Chad Bianco in a recent campaign, signed the search warrants. That allowed the sheriff to take the highly unusual step of seizing 650,000 ballots from California's 2025 election.

Until this week, the search warrants were secret with Bianco, who contended they reflected "normal law enforcement." His pal the judge kept them under official seal.

That changed Wednesday when a different Riverside County judge and the California Supreme Court ordered them opened. Lawyers representing CalMatters, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, The Riverside Record, other newspapers and local television affiliates won their motion to unseal the warrants and the sworn statements.