The California Supreme Court has ruled that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco acted unlawfully when he seized hundreds of thousands of ballots after the state’s 2025 special election on Proposition 50. In its decision in Cervantes v. Bianco, dated September 24, the court found “that the seizure of the ballots was unlawful.”
Governor Gavin Newsom’s office says Bianco took the ballots to try to claim and prove voter fraud, and that he never produced any evidence. California leaders went to court to hold him accountable.
Newsom welcomed the decision in a statement. “Today’s ruling affirms that in California we will defend democracy, using every branch of government,” he said. “People deserve to know their ballot is counted and secure, and in California we will do everything we can to protect that constitutional right, this year, and beyond.”
New laws and a federal ruling
The court’s decision came a week after Newsom signed a 13-bill election protection package. He said those laws add protections “so attacks like this cannot happen again.” His office describes the package as building on his record of defending democracy.
The governor’s office also pointed to a separate ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court against the Trump administration’s attempts to use the U.S. Postal Service against the vote-by-mail process.
