Riverside County Sheriff Bianco's ballot seizure case goes through California Supreme Court oral arguments

Oral arguments began on Monday in the California Supreme Court contesting the legality of Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco's seizure of about 650,000 ballots cast in last year's redistricting ballot measure.

In a news conference following the hearing in downtown San Francisco, representatives from the UCLA Voting Rights Project, which backs one of the two cases heard Monday, said a decision from the court is expected within the next 90 days. The other case comes from the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

"We're pleased the court gave our case careful attention today," said UCLA VRP Legal Director Chad Dunn. "We couldn't be more satisfied with how the hearing went today."

In March, Bianco, then a Republican candidate for California governor, seized about 650,000 ballots from the Prop 50 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 California Supreme Court paused the investigation in April, agreeing to hear the cases before outright halting it and ordering Bianco's office to return the ballots to the Riverside County Registrar of Voters.

Before Monday's hearing, he said his investigation was about "corruption in California."

"There's not one state constitution that allows for an individual to stop a lawful investigation into a crime," Bianco said. "This is about whether or not a corrupt attorney general can stop a lawful investigation.

Bianco's probe began after a local Riverside County group alleged a possible discrepancy of about 45,800 votes between the California Secretary of State and votes counted by electronic machines. 

Local election officials said the vote-counting discrepancy is much closer to 100 than the more than 45,000 that the sheriff alleges. Riverside County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen said it "will continue to comply with all lawful court orders and with all legal obligations applicable to election materials and election administration."

Gubernatorial candidate and former California AG Xavier Becerra, who is listed as counsel on the case for the UCLA VRP, called Bianco's seizure an "assault on elections."

"We hope that the Supreme Court of California will issue a swift decision protecting the right to vote, protecting the right to vote, protecting the ballots that are cast by our voters," Becerra said. "So we can once again give our voters the confidence to know that when they go out and do their democratic duty and cast their vote, not only will it be counted, but it will be protected."

The confiscated ballots remain confiscated in an undisclosed location, according to Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, a petitioner on the case.

"[It's] absolutely unacceptable," she said.