Gubernatorial candidate and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco has seized ballots from the November 2025 special election, with the intent to recount them. He is building on claims from a group of Riversiders that claim a 45,000-ballot difference between two reports from the Registrar of Voters is questionable.

Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco told the Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 10 that the group relied on unprocessed data and did not count confidential voters, conditional voter registration votes and provisional votes, the Riverside Record reported. The real discrepancy due to error was only 103 votes, Tinoco said.

Bianco thinks further investigation is needed.

"I'm not saying that anyone is lying, or that there is a series of mistakes. I am saying that we do not know. I am also saying that he (Tinoco) did not have a definitive answer of what happened. He gave his opinion of what he thought happened. What we all have to realize is that we're investigators. Because someone tells you something, doesn't mean you just, 'oh, that person said he didn't kill that person, so let's move on and not investigate.' It makes absolutely no sense to not continue an investigation, especially when both parties are so far apart," Bianco said.

Attorney General Rob Bonta doesn't think that passes the muster to execute a recount. His office has asked Bianco's for additional reasons for the investigation in multiple letters. The letters also asked Bianco to pause the recount until the California Department of Justice has a chance to review the case. Riverside Superior Judge Jay Kiel signed a warrant authorizing a recount, done under the court's supervision, on March 10.

Bonta's office filed a petition with the Court of Appeal on Monday, asking the court to override Kiel's order.

"Sheriff Respondents' warrant affidavits, including for the March 19 warrant, fail to identify any felony that may have been committed or establish a legally sufficient basis for a criminal search warrant…the Sheriff's move to seize 1,000 boxes of ballots and other election-related materials from the November 2025 Special Election—on vaguely stated grounds that they are evidence of a crime—threatens to chill voter participation," the DOJ wrote.

In a video posted to Instagram, Bianco called Bonta an embarrassment to law enforcement, called the Court of Appeal politically biased, implied that Bonta was afraid of the results of the recount, and affirmed that the recount was ordered by a Riverside Superior Judge.

Bonta's petition was denied Tuesday. The Court of Appeal wrote that the DOJ didn't yet try everything they could in the county court. The ruling does not decide the merits of the case.

"The facts have not changed. The Riverside County Sheriff continues to directly defy the Attorney General's instructions, in violation of the California Constitution and state law," wrote a statement from the DOJ Press Office.

Read more from CalMatters, the Riverside Record, the Press-Enterprise, and a timeline of events from Inland Empire Law Weekly.

After 12 years in office and five months of a criminal case, Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez pleaded guilty to one felony count of voting to approve a contract as mayor that he had a financial interest in.

As part of the plea deal struck with the District Attorney's Office, the office dropped four felony counts of perjury and four misdemeanor counts of using the office for his own financial interest.

In a statement through his lawyer, A. Alexander Lowder of Larson LLP, Hernandez wrote that he was proud of the work he did as mayor. He said he took the plea deal in the best interests of his family, and that he was looking forward to being a private citizen, in the company of his wife and daughters.

"Together, we delivered lasting results for Coachella. We transformed our city and strengthened our community. I will always be proud of our accomplishments," Hernandez wrote.

The conviction comes from his approval of a contract between Coachella and the Coachella Valley Association of Governments' Housing First Program, approved by the City Council on May 10, 2023. The city voted to give the agency $100,000 annually for three years to operate a housing program known as CV Housing First.

He was placed on two years of probation, with one day in county jail and 200 hours of community service.

Hernandez's term expires in December. The conviction bars him permanently from holding public office.

The dismissed financial interest counts were related to the use of COVID relief funds to rehabilitate the Downtown Coachella Fire Station, the Fountainhead Plaza, the Tripoli mixed-use project and the Sunline Transit Hub.

The perjury counts were related to income he said he received from a rental property on a candidate disclosure form. The indictment alleged he lied about income on four different submitted versions of the form, one each year, starting in 2022.

The Criminal Grand Jury brought the charges after talking with 13 witnesses, among them councilmember and attorney Megan Jacinto, former City Manager Gabriel Martin, former College of the Desert Vice President Annebelle Nery, Economic Development Director Celina Jimenez, Coachella Valley Independent writer Kevin Fitzgerald, City Attorney Carlos Campos, Coachella Valley Association of Governments Deputy Executive Director Erica Felci and Councilmember Denise Delgado.

Assemblymember Natasha Johnson (R-Lake Elsinore) doesn't think that property owners should have to file a notarized letter every year to authorize police intervention on their property during their absence.

On March 17, the Assembly Standing Committee on Public Safety agreed, advancing her bill unanimously.

Assembly Bill 1632 would remove the requirement for property owners to send notarized letters authoring police officers' intervention on their property under Penal Code Section 602. A simple letter would do. That small change is expected to save properties from fire, and free up the Riverside police budget.

"Across California, police departments receive daily calls from property owners frustrated with repeated trespassing that often results in trash, bodily waste, drug paraphernalia scattered across the property, and other damage to facilities. Just last year, the Assemblymember said in 2025, our police department received more than 4,300 calls for service related to trespassing," Riverside Chief of Police Larry Gonzalez told the committee.

Johnson said the change would prevent property damage and fires.

"In the City of Riverside and the county across the state, unauthorized occupation of vacant lots, buildings is a leading cause of structure fires and wildfires. By making it easier to maintain an active 602 letter, we allow officers to intervene proactively before a trespass incident turns into a public safety hazard," Johnson said.

Johnson said the Riverside Police Department spent $37,800 in training staff to process the letters.

"Our department has been assisting with the notary equipment of many of these letters, which cost the department approximately $38,000 in staff time where we're trying to set up workshops at our stations throughout the city to have property or business owners come in and get that done," said Larry Gonzalez, Riverside Chief of Police.

Aaron Petroff, an advocate for the Inland Empire's homeless population, spoke in favor of the bill on behalf of the Social Work Action Group.

"This bill, it's not about criminalizing individuals. It's about providing that intervention to reach somebody in that addictive lifestyle. We're constantly chasing people down to reach them. You know, they're hiding in the shadows because of what they're doing. And when we come across multiple properties or properties where there is no 602 for trespassing, That's a place that's a refuge that an addict will take and hide and makes us unable to reach them and provide that support," Petroff said.

Housing California representative Purva Bhattacharjee spoke against the bill, saying it would worsen the state's homelessness crisis.

"A recent report from the ACLU has showed that trespass violations are sometimes used by cities to target people experiencing homelessness, giving them nowhere to legally rest within a city, and remove them from the city altogether, rather than coordinating with the state and county partners needed in order to give people the services and housing that they need," Bhattacharjee said.

Leslie Wolf of the Public Defender's Union, said the bill would increase the number of citations given to homeless people, which can turn into a warrant for their arrest if they can't make it to court.

"On multiple occasions, I have seen circumstances where our clients gain housing, are stabilized, but due to old warrants, usually trespass warrants, they are then pulled back into the criminal justice system and they then lose that housing," Wolf said.

To pass through the committee, Johnson removed the second part of the bill, which would have extended the time a single letter can approve police intervention from one year to three.

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