Report: California sheriff ordered to return ballots he confiscated in voter ‘fraud’ inquiry

The Guardian — World has reported on “Report: California sheriff ordered to return ballots he confiscated in voter ‘fraud’ inquiry,” presenting it as the central development in the source material available for this brief.

State supreme court rules Chad Bianco’s conduct unlawful and states he ‘must refrain from further handling’ of ballots A Republican California sheriff must return more than a half-million ballots he seized for an investigation into unfounded voting improprieties in a special election last year, the state supreme court ruled Thursday. The report also notes that Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco in February seized approximately 650,000 ballots from a November 2025 special election on statewide congressional redistricting favorable to Democrats and pushed by Governor Gavin Newsom. The measure easily passed statewide, and won in Bianco’s county by roughly 80,000 votes.

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