Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta has reportedly filed an emergency writ with the Court of Appeals to halt Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s audit of a staggering 45,896-vote ballot discrepancy from last year’s special election on Governor Gavin Newsom’s controversial Proposition 50 redistricting scheme.
Why the desperate Hail Mary to block transparency on an effort to explain how officials certified 657,322 votes in a county where only 611,428 ballots were actually cast? That's a massive gap in numbers. And you'd think the top law enforcement officer in the state would be somewhat curious as to how that might have happened.
Instead, Bonta has repeatedly attempted to intimidate and derail an independent investigation into whether Newsom’s redistricting power grab was passed through questionable—or possibly rigged—means.
The emergency writ would appear to be a dramatic escalation in these intimidation tactics. Bianco, a leading 2026 Republican gubernatorial candidate in the Golden State, called Bonta out in a video posted to X.
"The political corruption in California just gets bigger and bigger," the sheriff stated. "Our embarrassment to law enforcement, Attorney General Rob Bonta, just filed an emergency writ with the court of appeals to stop ballots from being counted in Riverside County."
Bianco points out that his investigation is not an attempt to count how many voted for or against Prop 50, which passed in a special election this past November. The measure allows the state legislature to, in short, redraw congressional maps to favor Democrats until the 2030 census.
It's simply an effort to count the total ballots and perhaps figure out where the discrepancy comes from.
"Why in the world would Rob Bonta want that count stopped?" he rhetorically wondered. "Unless he was afraid of what that count would uncover."
BREAKING: Attorney General Rob Bonta just filed an emergency writ with the court of appeals to stop ballots from being counted.
— Sheriff Chad Bianco (@ChadBianco) March 24, 2026
For those not aware, we are investigating a reported discrepancy of 45,000 votes. pic.twitter.com/V882Ks8ZEt
Bianco points out that a Riverside Superior Court judge previously sided with the sheriff, greenlighting the continuation of the inquiry under a court-appointed special master to ensure independence and transparency.
The GOP contender for governor, as RedState reported, has accused Bonta of trying to "shut down" his investigative efforts. He described to reporters multiple direct contacts from the AG's office—including phone calls and letters—that he characterized as heavy-handed attempts to shut down scrutiny of the unexplained 45,000+ vote gap.
What was intended as a straightforward verification of total ballots on hand has now triggered what critics are calling a desperate cover-up to shield the Newsom-backed scheme that could hand Democrats up to five additional congressional seats.
🚨NEW: Rob Bonta COVERING for CORRUPTION - Trying to stop a rightful investigation into ELECTIONS concerns! We need a new Attorney General! pic.twitter.com/AUD4mkih1v
— Attorney Michael E. Gates (@MichaelGatesESQ) March 20, 2026
Bonta's cover-up might work.
"We have an extremely politically biased appeals court, so this is going to be interesting," Bianco explains. "What's it going to be? Let law enforcement count the ballots as part of a lawful investigation? Or halt the investigation and sweep it under the rug?"
"All California voters should be demanding transparency, not legal maneuvers and cover-ups."
County Registrar Art Tinoco and state officials have countered Bianco's claims, stating the actual final discrepancy is only ~103 votes, attributing the larger gap to a misunderstanding of unprocessed data.
That said, Bonta's behavior is confusing. Critics of the probe want to dismiss the larger gap as a simple paperwork misunderstanding — yet Bonta is pulling out every legal stop to prevent an actual physical count under a court-appointed special master. If it’s truly just 103 votes of human error, why go to emergency writ extremes to stop a court-supervised physical count?
Bonta has a chance to allow the counting of ballots to go forward, confident in the officials who certified the votes, and, if it is ultimately proven accurate, could declare that California's elections are secure. It would be a major win.
Instead, he is strongly fighting against the audit. Why? Because of the national implications. Any question about the integrity of county-level elections would call into question Newsom's redistricting power grab, which itself is a brazen attempt to tip the scales of power in the House in favor of Democrats.
To paraphrase our nation's greatest orator, Joe Biden, this is a big f'n deal. Not just at the county or state level, but at the national level. And Bianco is right to try to get to the bottom of the matter.
Editor's Note: The Democrats are doing everything in their power to undermine the integrity of our elections.
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