In a bold move, a leading Republican gubernatorial contender in California, who also serves as sheriff, has taken possession of over 650,000 ballots from the state’s November elections. This action stems from a controversial investigation into alleged voting discrepancies.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco initiated an inquiry into the November 2025 special election concerning Proposition 50, following claims by the Riverside Election Integrity Team. This group reported finding approximately 45,000 surplus votes. Despite state election officials dismissing these claims, Bianco announced that his department will independently verify the vote count.

“The goal of this investigation is straightforward: to physically tally the ballots and match that count against the officially recorded votes,” Bianco stated during a press briefing on Friday.

Proposition 50 is a significant initiative aimed at redrawing California’s congressional districts to benefit Democrats, in response to similar partisan maneuvers by Republicans in Texas.

However, Secretary of State Shirley Weber has contested Bianco’s authority to conduct such a recount.

“The actions taken by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office are based on allegations that lack substantial evidence and have the potential to erode public trust in our electoral process,” Weber remarked to City News Service. “While it’s commendable that the sheriff believes in the counting capabilities of his deputies, the reality is that they are not trained elections officials and lack the necessary expertise in election procedures.”

Riverside elections official Art Tinoco rejected the Riverside Election Integrity Team’s findings earlier this month, saying the group had misinterpreted how votes are counted on Election Day.

Tinoco told county supervisors earlier this year that the initial intake logs by polling workers are meant to be estimates rather than exact tallies of how many votes were cast. Even so, he said the final tally was within 0.16%, or 103 votes, of the original estimate.

The Elections Integrity Team maintains their math is correct, however, and it was this disagreement that led Bianco to open an investigation of his own.

Bianco accused California Attorney General Bob Bonta, a Democrat, of intervening in the investigation. Bonta, however, says his office only sought to learn the basis of the probe.

Bianco has also clashed on social media with Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who is running for California governor as well.

Bianco said Friday that his office had received multiple letters from Bonta ordering him to cease the investigation, according to the Desert Sun.

“The outrage that an investigation was happening was extremely concerning to me, especially coming from someone who claims to be a law enforcement officer that is, I’ve said this a minimum of a thousand times, he’s an embarrassment to law enforcement,” Bianco said.

Bonta and Weber did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

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