The justices ruled unanimously in two cases against Bianco, stating that he violated the law when he seized the ballots and also ignored directives from Attorney General Rob Bonta.
"In short, Bianco's arguments fail to persuade us that we should interpret section 15551 in a manner inconsistent with its plain text, which mandates that voted ballots remain in the custody of elections officials," the court wrote in its ruling.
When the Riverside County Sheriff's Office seized the ballots earlier this year, Bianco, who lost his bid for California governor in the primaries, seized more than 611,000 ballots from the special election in which voters approved a redistricting measure that shifted five of California's Republican U.S. House seats to be more favorable to Democrats in the midterm elections this year.
The investigation faced fierce backlash, including legal challenges from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, UCLA's Voting Rights Project, whose lawsuit resulted in the court's decision, and local leaders in Riverside who petitioned to have the ballots returned to the Registrar's Office.
After the filings, Bianco said in late March that he would pause his investigation "because of the politically motivated lawsuits and court filings" before the state Supreme Court ultimately issued a formal order to halt the probe in April.
Bianco has repeated President Trump's claims about election fraud, saying that "there was fraud" during the 2020 election during a podcast appearance in October 2025.
He reiterated similar claims while the court heard oral arguments, claiming that the investigation was about "corruption in California."
Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former state attorney general Xavier Becerra is part of UCLA's Voting Rights Project.
"Today's ruling affirms that in California we will defend democracy — using every branch of government. And the new laws I signed just last week add new protections so attacks like this cannot happen again," Newsom wrote in response to the rulings. "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."
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