Riverside County
Southern California county east of Los Angeles; the state's fourth most populous.
Riverside County's registrar is due to get back about 650,000 ballots from the county's own sheriff, Chad Bianco, after California's Supreme Court ruled on 24 September 2026 that he had seized them unlawfully during an inquiry into the Proposition 50 vote.
Last refreshed: 1 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for Riverside County
Hosted the registrar whose ballots were seized
US Midterms 2026: Bianco must hand back 650,000 ballotsBackground
Riverside County sits at the centre of California's fight over WHO may hold cast ballots. Its sheriff, Chad Bianco, took about 650,000 ballots from the county registrar under a warrant obtained on 9 February 2026, and the state Supreme Court ordered them returned on 24 September.
The ballots were cast in the county in the 4 November 2025 special election on Proposition 50, the measure that adopted the Legislature's House map for use until 2030. The seizure followed an unverified claim by a group of a 45,896-ballot gap between valid ballots and the official count. Bianco called his inquiry lawful and said he would appeal to the federal courts.
Riverside is California's fourth most populous county, with about 2.53 million residents by the Census Bureau's July 2024 estimate, and the tenth largest in the US. It lies east of Los Angeles, and its seat is the city of Riverside.
Why did the Riverside County sheriff seize ballots?
What did the California Supreme Court order in Cervantes v. Bianco?
How many people live in Riverside County?
