Riverside County Sheriff’s Office Investigating Alleged Election Irregularities

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office (RSO) has launched an investigation into “alleged irregularities in our elections,” the department confirmed in a Wednesday statement to The Riverside Record.

“The sheriff’s office and county officials are committed to safe and secure elections,” the statement said. “The board of supervisors, county executive office and the registrar of voters are fully cooperating in the investigation to ensure Riverside County residents are confident their elections are safe and secure.”

The department declined to comment on the specifics or the extent of the investigation in an effort to ensure there was “no miscommunication or conjecture,” prior to the investigation’s completion. The Riverside County Registrar of Voters (ROV) directed all inquiries to the county.

Confirmation of the investigation came less than a month after a group of local residents, calling themselves the Riverside Election Integrity Team (REIT), reported a discrepancy between the number of ballots cast and the number of ballots counted in last November’s special statewide election.

According to the group, which presented the findings at a February 10 workshop, there were 611,426 ballots cast and 657,322 ballots counted, a difference of 45,896.

“That’s how [RSO Investigator] Robert [Castellanos] got involved,” Greg Langworthy, a member of REIT, said in an interview with The Record. “He was given the responsibility to investigate the 45,000 extra votes, and try to get to the bottom of whether this error was because of something in the system or if it was because the election workers are making lots of errors.”

Castellanos declined to comment on the investigation when contacted by The Record.

Langworthy said that in order to determine what was going on, Castellanos had “secured the ballots,” through a “court order” and was going to conduct a count in an effort to get to the bottom of the discrepancy.

At a Tuesday meeting of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors, Shasta County ROV Clint Curtis said the sheriff’s office was “confiscating all of the records in Riverside.” The comment came as he defended his statements that his predecessor, and current campaign opponent, was guilty of criminal fraud during a tour of his office. Curtis also spoke at the February 10 workshop as a guest of REIT.

The Record has not been able to independently verify whether the sheriff’s department was in possession of the ballots from last November’s special election or whether a court order had been obtained regarding the ballots.

At the same workshop where REIT presented its findings, ROV Art Tinoco said the discrepancy reported by REIT was inaccurate by orders of magnitude, and the difference between ballots cast and ballots counted was actually 103.

The Record independently confirmed there was a difference of 103 between the ballots cast and the ballots counted with data provided by the California Secretary of State, which showed that there were 657,219 ballots cast compared to the 657,322 ballots counted.

“There isn’t really any accusation against Art,” Langworthy said. “Art is the reason that we were able to discover the discrepancies.”

In a statement to The Record, County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen said both the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and the ROV were “committed to safeguarding free and fair elections,” noting that all elections staff were trained to follow specific procedures regulated by several state and federal laws.

“Over the years, the ROV team has met with community members to discuss a variety of election-related issues, including recent questions regarding the number of ballots cast versus ballots counted in the November 4 special election,” he said. “As election procedures come under more scrutiny across the nation, I want to remind residents that every aspect of the electoral process can be observed (in person or virtually) by members of the community, media, candidates or any other interested parties.”

Van Wagenen said that transparency was “key to the foundation of our democratic electoral process,” and that the ROV continued to assist law enforcement efforts to “preserve election integrity,” noting that the county remained focused on the upcoming June 2 statewide primary election. 

Langworthy said the group’s members first informed the sheriff’s department that they believed there were issues with the signature verification process a couple of months ago. At that point, he said the sheriff’s department told the residents to take their concerns to the Riverside County District Attorney’s (DA) Office, which Langworthy said they did.

“They weren’t really willing to do anything unless the ROV invited them,” Langworthy said.

In a statement to The Record, the DA’s office said it only reviews allegations or concerns submitted to the office through its formal complaint process.

“This process allows us to make investigative decisions in accordance with established legal standards and procedures,” the statement said. “This procedure ensures that all complaints are properly documented and helps maintain transparency, fairness and objectivity throughout.”

This is the second time since 2020 the department, under Sheriff Chad Bianco, has investigated election issues. The first, reported in late 2023, caused concern among democracy watchdogs. The sheriff defended the investigation at the time.

A civil grand jury report on the 2020 election found no evidence of election fraud in Riverside County and that the votes were accurately counted and verified.

Bianco could not be reached for comment either through the sheriff’s department or through his gubernatorial campaign prior to publication.