Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is investigating a potential discrepancy in the number of ballots cast in the 2025 special election. An independent investigation by a group of concerned citizens revealed that the total of ballots counted by machines was only over 611,000. Bianco stated that he did not know if anyone was lying or made mistakes, but the difference between a perfect count and a 45,800 vote difference is "massive". The sheriff's investigators have seized multiple boxes of ballots from the election. The investigation is being overseen by a special master to supervise the vote count.