Court blocks California effort to stop Republican sheriff’s ballot recount | California
A three-judge panel rejected California attorney general Rob Bonta’s application seeking a court order to stop the Riverside County sheriff’s department from continuing to recount ballots starting in the November 2025 special election.
L.A. Times reported Bonta filed a petition with the fourth appellate district on Monday, writing that the “sheriff’s misguided investigation threatens to sow distrust and jeopardize the public’s trust in the upcoming election.”
On Tuesday, the fourth appellate district court denied the 70-page petition, saying Bonta should appeal to a lower court.
The move comes after Republican gubernatorial candidate Sheriff Chad Bianco seized more than 650,000 ballots cast in Riverside County in last November’s election, which resulted in the passage of Proposition 50. The proposal redraws congressional districts to help gerrymander the state in favor of Democrats, in response to similar measures in Republican states like Texas.
California Republicans, joined by the Trump administration, objected to the measure, but the US supreme court rejected an emergency petition to block the new maps from moving forward.
Bianco said the recount effort stemmed from claims that the results were off by 45,800 votes, but Bonta and Art Tinoco, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors registrar of voters, assured that the votes differed by about 100 votes.
A Riverside superior court judge appointed a special master to count the votes, Bianco said at a news conference Friday. “This investigation is simple: Physically count the ballots and compare that result to the total votes recorded.” Bianco said.
“There is no sign of widespread voter fraud anywhere in the United States,” Bonta said in a statement. According to the Los Angeles Times. “Counts, recounts, hand counts, audits and lawsuits all support this.”
Bonta repeatedly sent letters to Bianco’s office over the past two months saying his staff was not authorized to conduct recounts. In one of the letters, Bonta wrote that seizing ballots was “unacceptable” and “sets a dangerous precedent and will only sow distrust in our elections.”
Chandra Bhatnagar, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, backed Bonta on Tuesday and called Bianco’s claims “misleading.”
“Let’s be clear: no sheriff has a legitimate role, much less experience, in administering our elections or administering the ballots of hundreds of thousands of voters,” Bhatnagar said. “The Sheriff’s investigation poses a serious threat to voter privacy, undermines our democratic process, and raises questions about the abuse of law enforcement authority for political gain.”
Roque Planas contributed reporting
