Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify

is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes

that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping

solutions that actually save you time, from startups to scaleups, online online, in-person, and on the go.

Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.

The midterm elections are heating up and battle lines are being drawn in cities and towns across the country in places like Riverside County, California.

That's where a court battle is playing out between Sheriff Chad Bianco, a prominent election denier running for governor and Democrats who say a seizure of more than 60,000 ballots from a prior election

is a political stunt that undermines public trust in voting. Even if you don't call California

home, it's a political fight that could impact elections across the country.

Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excert. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Monday, April 6, 26.

Joining me to talk about what's happening in Riverside and how it might reverberate in other counties is USA Today

Domestic Security Correspondent, Josh Meyer. Josh, it's great to have you back on the excerpt.

Hi, Dana. Josh, let's start out with the story being told by Sheriff Chad Bianco. Why is he claiming

he needs to investigate this election that happened way back in November of 2025? Right. So Bianco, he has for years been concerned about elections in California,

saying that there's been fraud, especially by Democrats. And so what he said in this case is that

there was a conservative elections group that found some disparities in the balloting. They basically

found 45,000 votes difference between what were

actually cast and initially recorded and what was finally tallied when they took the final count.

So he basically said that as part of his job as the sheriff in Riverside County,

he got court approval to seize all the ballots that were submitted in Riverside County, and he's

trying to count them now to see why there's this discrepancy, whether it had an impact on the election,

and what needs to be done to fix it.

...