More than 650,000 ballots seized by the Riverside County Sheriff's Office are back in the hands of election officials, a resolution that comes five weeks before Murrieta voters head to the polls for the Nov. 3 general election.

The sheriff's department returned the ballots and related materials to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 29, registrar spokesperson Elizabeth Florer confirmed that afternoon, as first reported by The Press-Enterprise. An inspection of the returned materials was continuing.

The return came five days after the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Sheriff Chad Bianco's seizure of the ballots was unlawful. The court ordered Bianco to give them back. Bianco said on Sept. 24, when the ruling came down, that he would comply. "That's what law enforcement does … we abide by the law, and I have a court telling me to do something, so of course I'm going to abide by that ruling," he told The Riverside Record.

Bianco did not respond to The Riverside Record's request for comment about the physical return on Sept. 29.

The ballots were cast during the November 2025 statewide special election that redrew California's congressional districts. Bianco's department obtained search warrants in spring 2026 to seize them from the registrar. A citizen group called the Riverside Election Integrity Team had alleged a 45,000-vote gap between ballots cast and ballots counted. Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco said the gap did not exist and stemmed from a misunderstanding of election data. The actual discrepancy, Tinoco said, was 103 votes, well within the margin of error set by the California secretary of state.

According to a court filing cited by The Riverside Record, deputies seized 12 pallets containing 1,086 boxes under a Feb. 9 warrant and 11 pallets containing 426 boxes under a Feb. 23 warrant. No additional materials were taken under a March 19 warrant.

Riverside County Supervisor Jose Medina praised the return. "The unlawful seizure of ballots by armed officers was outside the Sheriff's authority and should never have occurred," Medina said in an emailed statement.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office won both Supreme Court cases against Bianco, said on X on Wednesday, Sept. 30, that the registrar was conducting a full inventory to ensure all ballots were accounted for. The registrar's office said it was working with the state to determine next steps for the materials.

The two cases were Cervantes v. Bianco, filed by the UCLA Voting Rights Project on behalf of four Riverside County voters, and Bonta v. Bianco. In the first, the court found Bianco violated the California Elections Code, which requires ballots to remain in election officials' custody even during a criminal investigation. In the second, the court ruled the state constitution gives the attorney general authority to issue binding directives to sheriffs.

A law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in May 2026 now makes it a felony to take ballots from county registrars.

The Riverside County Registrar of Voters is scheduled to conduct logic and accuracy testing for the Nov. 3 general election on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m. at 2724 Gateway Drive in Riverside. The public is invited to attend.