After a monthslong journey that took them from the registrar of voters to police custody and back, thanks to California’s Supreme Court, more than 650,000 ballots cast by Riverside County voters will meet their end.
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As required by state law, the ballots — cast in the November 2025 Proposition 50 special election — are being destroyed Tuesday, Oct. 13, county officials announced. The portion of the state elections code cited by the county requires ballots to be destroyed six months after an election.
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Sheriff Chad Bianco, whose seizure of the ballots sparked a nationally watched legal dispute and fueled the ongoing debate over election security, denounced the move, calling it “destruction of evidence” in a fundraising email Monday, Oct. 12.
“This is exactly what (California Attorney General) Rob Bonta wanted — for trust in our elections to be buried, along with any evidence of a crime,” Bianco wrote.
“This isn’t just lawfare against one sheriff; it’s a corrupt legal system that now allows destruction of evidence. The integrity of our elections is being eroded by a small group of people who put their own special interests above the people’s trust in our institutions.”
Bonta’s office could not immediately be reached Tuesday morning.
Bianco’s department returned the ballots to the Riverside County elections office Sept. 29, five days after the state’s high court ruled that the sheriff — a Republican candidate for governor at the time — should not have seized them and should have heeded Bonta’s call to pause his investigation.
After the ballots’ return, the county “sought written guidance” from California’s justice department and secretary of state about how to dispose of them, County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen said via email.
The justice department didn’t object to destroying the ballots, something the secretary of state said must be done to comply with state law, Van Wagenen said.
“Following receipt of this guidance and an independent legal review confirming the County’s obligations under State law, the Registrar of Voters will proceed with the destruction of the ballots in accordance with established election procedures,” the CEO added.
“The County remains committed to secure, accurate, transparent, and lawful elections,” Van Wagenen said. “We have confidence in Registrar Art Tinoco and the dedicated professionals in the Registrar of Voters office, who continue to carry out their responsibilities while preparing for the November 3 General Election.”
The law cited by Van Wagenen calls for keeping ballots for six months after an election. Six months from the date of the Nov. 4, 2025, Proposition 50 was May 4 of this year.
After that, ballots must be destroyed unless there’s a challenge to the results “or if a criminal prosecution involving fraudulent use, marking or falsification of ballots, or forgery of vote by mail voters’ signatures” occurs, the law states.
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It’s not clear how the county’s Proposition 50 ballots were to be destroyed.
Proposition 50 was a successful statewide ballot measure that redrew California’s congressional districts to favor Democrats in a tit-for-tat nationwide redistricting fight with Republicans. The measure passed in Riverside County, 56% to 44%.
The sheriff’s probe stemmed from a complaint by the Riverside Election Integrity Team, a citizen’s watchdog group, which said it uncovered a roughly 45,000-vote gap between ballots cast by county voters in the Proposition 50 election and the number of Proposition 50 ballots received by the registrar.
Tinoco said the actual gap was just 103 votes — well within the margin of error set by California’s secretary of state, which oversees elections.
Nonetheless, sheriff’s investigators obtained search warrants from the court to seize the ballots.
Bianco, who did not challenge the Proposition 50 election’s outcome, said his department wanted to count the ballots to determine whether the 45,000-vote gap existed and if so, whether the gap was the result of criminal wrongdoing.
At the time, Bianco said he seized the ballots in part to prevent their destruction before his department could investigate.
Voting rights advocates and California’s Democratic leadership denounced the seizure, calling it illegal, baseless and an attempt to sow public distrust of elections. Bonta sued, and the case, along with a legal challenge by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, made it to the state’s supreme court.
The election integrity team Tuesday urged Bianco and Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin “to exercise their constitutional duty and authority” and halt the ballots’ destruction.
The team’s audits “are evidence of possible election fraud, and the only means of testing the veracity of the evidence we have presented is a counting of the ballots now in possession of the Registrar,” according to a letter quoted in the team’s news release.
Destroying the ballots also violates the U.S. Constitution, the team’s release states.
The sheriff’s and DA’s office did not immediately respond Tuesday morning to a request for comment about the team’s news release.
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This is a developing story. Check back for updates.