A Republican California sheriff who is running for governor has seized more than 650,000 ballots to investigate an alleged excess of votes. 

Sheriff Chad Bianco, who oversees Riverside County just east of Los Angeles, began his investigation over the weekend, with his office describing ‘alleged irregularities’ in the county’s elections. 

The move stemmed from the findings of a third-party, citizens’ election watchdog group called the Riverside Election Integrity Team. 

The organization claimed to have found an excess of around 46,000 votes in the November special election for Proposition 50, which was a redistricting effort intended to favor Democrats in the midterm elections and was voted into law. 

Proposition 50 was introduced by California Governor Gavin Newsom in response to a similar redistricting move in Texas that strengthened Republicans’ prospects in the upcoming midterms.

California officials have insisted that the Riverside Election Integrity Team’s findings are unfounded and could fuel conspiracy theories, but Bianco has gone ahead with his investigation anyway and has said his office will conduct another count. 

At a press conference on Friday, the sheriff, who is an avid supporter of Trump, said: ‘This investigation is simple: physically count the ballots and compare that result with the total votes recorded.’

But California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has questioned Bianco’s investigation and said his office has neither the expertise nor the authority to conduct a recount. 

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has seized more than 650,000 ballots as his office investigates ‘alleged irregularities’ in the county’s elections

Bianco cited an alleged excess of around 46,000 votes in the special election for Proposition 50, which was a redistricting effort favorable to Democrats that was introduced by California Governor Gavin Newsom (pictured) 

Bianco is a Republican, and he is running for governor of California. He is pictured walking through a crowd after announcing his gubernatorial bid in February 

‘The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office has taken actions based on allegations that lack credible evidence and risk undermining public confidence in our elections,’ Weber told the City News Service, a news wire for Southern California. 

‘The sheriff’s assertion that his deputies know how to count is admirable. The fact remains that he and his deputies are not elections officials, and they do not have expertise in election administration.’

Proposition 50 was passed into law after receiving 64 percent of statewide ballots cast in November of last year. 

The law won 56 percent of the vote in Riverside County, where a total of 656,000 votes were cast. That means Bianco has seized pretty much every vote that was made.

At a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting in February, Greg Langworthy, a leader of the Riverside Election Integrity Team, explained his group’s method of auditing voting machines.

‘We are accounting for all the ballots that came into the system, and there cannot be any more votes than the ballots that came into the system,’ he said, noting that the exact number of ballots that allegedly could not be accounted for was 45,896. 

Art Tinoco, a Riverside County election official, dismissed the Riverside Election Integrity Team’s excess ballot findings last month and said the organization did not understand how vote counts are done on election day. 

The election official told county supervisors that initial intake logs are supposed to be estimates rather than exact counts and that the final tally, which was determined through two independent systems, was still within 103 votes of that estimate.

A Riverside County election official dismissed the excess vote count and said that the election integrity did not understand how vote tallies work on election day. A woman casting her ballot is pictured (stock image)

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has questioned Sheriff Bianco’s investigation and whether his office has the experience or authority to conduct a recount

California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office has said that it has ‘serious questions about the merits of [Bianco’s] investigation’

That is a tiny fraction of the discrepancy cited by the sheriff’s office, and it is well within the state’s accepted margin of error, Tinoco said. 

‘Did the Nov. 4, 2025, statewide special election have a 45,896-ballot discrepancy between ballots cast and ballots counted?’ Tinoco asked at the board of supervisors meeting. ‘The answer to that is no.’

On top of vocal opposition, Sheriff Bianco has said that Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta has actively worked to undermine his investigation. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Bonta’s office refuted that allegation and said: ‘We have attempted to work cooperatively with the Sheriff’s Office in order to better understand the basis for their investigation, including by reviewing the warrants themselves and by requesting the Sheriff’s complete investigative file.’

The California attorney general’s office added that Bianco ‘has delayed, stonewalled, and otherwise refused to work with us in good faith.’

Bonta’s office said that the sheriff has not provided most of the documentation that has been requested and that it has ‘serious questions about the merits of this investigation.’ 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office for comment.