Sheriff Bianco Investigates Election Discrepancy

0:00It's March 22nd. You're listening to Global News today, AI-powered Global Coverage. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who's running for California governor, has taken control of more than half a million ballots from a special election last November. He's looking into what he calls a discrepancy between the reported vote totals and hand-written intake lobs reported by a citizen group. The election passed a measure to redraw congressional districts in a way that helps Democrats, winning by more than 80,000 votes. Bianco, a Republican twice-elected sheriff in the county of 2.5 million people, got a warrant back in February to seize nearly 1,000, boxes of ballots and materials. He describes it as a straightforward fact-finding mission to physically count the ballots and match them against official results. County election officials strongly dispute his claims, while Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta calls the move unprecedented and says it's meant to undermine trust in elections.

1:02Leading Democrats worry this place into broader election skepticism, especially with Bianco and a crowded top two primary for governor against several of their candidates. The ballot count started but paused, and now is resuming under a judge appointed special master for oversight. Bianco insists this has nothing to do with his campaign and is just his duty to check potential issues. As the investigation moves forward, it highlights tensions over election integrity in a state where Democrats hold strong majorities with eyes on the June primary results.