California sheriff running for governor seizes more than a half million ballots from 2025 election

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks at a news conference in Lake Elsinore, Calif., Feb. 7, 2023, as officials announced that the closure of poppy fields at Walker Canyon until the wildflower bloom subsides. (Watchara Phomicinda/The Orange County Register via AP, File) 2026-03-22T17:29:09Z RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A California sheriff running for governor has seized more than half a million ballots cast in a November special election from county election officials, saying he’s investigating a ballot count discrepancy. County elections officials have disputed the claims by Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, called Bianco’s move unprecedented and says it is designed to sow distrust in elections. Bianco held a news conference Friday saying his office had launched the investigation after receiving a complaint from a local citizens group about the ballot count from a November 2025 special election on redistricting . In the special election, voters approved a measure to redraw congressional district lines to favor Democrats in the upcoming midterm election. The measure passed in the county by a margin of more than 80,000 votes. Bianco seized ballots in Riverside County, the inland California county of 2.5 million people where he has twice been elected sheriff. He called the effort “a fact-finding mission.” “This investigation is simple: Physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes reported,” he said Friday. Bianco is one of two prominent Republicans running for governor in a crowded June primary that includes more than half a dozen Democrats. California runs a top-two primary system that puts all candidates on the same ballot, regardless of party, and sends the two candidates who get the most voters onto the November general election. Leading California Democrats are worried that their party has so many candidates, they risk splitting the vote and sending Bianco and Ste

原文链接: AP News