California and a voting rights group filed legal challenges to stop GOP sheriff's ballot seizure

The California attorney general and a voting right groups have launched two legal challenges to halt a ballot seizure by a Republican sheriff in Riverside County. The dispute began last month when Sheriff Chad Bianco took some 650,000 ballots from a 2025 election and escalated this week as Bianco took even more ballots from county election office. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the seizure is unprecedented and could sow distrust in the upcoming elections. The UCLA Voting Rights Project argued that the sheriff has no authority to seize the ballots. Bianco insisted the probe was legal. He's one of two prominent GOP candidates running for governor.