Neither Supervisor Lynn Compton nor her challenger Jimmy Paulding was in the room on June 15 when San Luis Obispo County election workers processed and counted what was likely the decisive batch of ballots in the 4th District county supervisor race.
Instead, a small group of the candidates’ closest confidants huddled together in the bullpen of the County Clerk’s Office, observing the wheels of democracy turn.
Tense, their eyes darted methodically between a computer monitor and the notepads in their laps. First, the monitor would show the image of a ballot that had been unreadable by the counting machine due to a voter error. Then, depending on how Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong decided that ballot got handled, the campaign reps furiously jotted down comments, ballot numbers, and tallies.
The scene was the entire 4th District supervisor race in a nutshell: drama and high stakes. Razor-thin margins. Every vote matters.
“This is an extremely close race. There’s a lot riding on it,” said Tave Holland, legal counsel for the Paulding campaign, at one point during the action.
Going into June 15, Compton held an 81-vote lead over Paulding, with 17,515 ballots counted and about 1,000 still outstanding. By the end of the day, Compton would remain ahead by 62 votes—all but securing her re-election victory and a conservative majority on the Board of Supervisors.
As the campaign members strained their eyes and bit their nails in the Clerk’s Office, Gong and his team stoically maneuvered the room without regard for the partisan observers or their desired outcomes. Gong calmly directed the action, but he rarely had to speak. His office looked like a well-oiled machine churning since the June 5 primary election.
Both campaigns gushed about the quality of the clerk staff. James Sofranko, Paulding’s assistant campaign manager, described them as “incredible.” Compton’s members agreed.
“I’ve been here many times. They have a great staff—the most harmonious, pleasant people to be around,” said Laura Mordaunt, a rep for the Compton campaign.
But Compton has at least one bone to pick with Gong. Earlier that day, her attorneys filed a lawsuit demanding that he stop processing a group of 35 vote-by-mail ballots with non-matching signatures. On vote-by-mail ballots—the overwhelming majority of ballots in this election—the Clerk’s Office is required to verify each signature for its authenticity. If a signature is either missing or doesn’t match what the voter has on record, it won’t count unless the voter fixes the problem.
Compton’s local attorney Stew Jenkins (also chair of the SLO chapter of the ACLU) and her not-so-local attorney Charles Bell Jr. (former counsel to the California Republican Party and attorney for 1st District County Supervisor John Peschong) argued that election code allows voters eight days to rectify non-matching signature issues after June 5, after which they must be thrown out along with unsigned ballots. Gong wanted to give voters more time—until the end of canvassing—to do so, arguing election law gave him that discretion.
After Jenkins and Bell Jr. failed to sway Gong with a formal letter, they filed the lawsuit in SLO County Superior Court on June 15.
“The rule is the rule,” said Andrea Seastrand, a Compton supporter and former 24th District U.S. Congresswoman who was in the Clerk’s Office on June 15. “You either follow a rule or you don’t.”
“It’s a matter of voter responsibility. You have to have a cutoff,” Mordaunt added.
On June 18, Judge Barry LaBarbera issued a temporary restraining order against Gong counting those ballots. After hearing formal arguments from county counsel and Compton’s attorneys on June 19, LaBarbera extended the temporary order another 24 hours, but ultimately ruled against Compton and lifted the order on June 20.
The batch of ballots wrapped up in litigation likely won’t matter in the end. After a June 20 count, Compton was still ahead by 55 votes—9,183 to 9,128 votes—with only 46 ballots outstanding.
Gong said he was expecting to certify the election results on June 22.
On June 13, Paulding told New Times he would consider asking for a recount if the margin was close enough. Neither he nor Compton returned a request for comment, but Paulding published a post to his Facebook page on June 15.
“There are still votes to be counted,” Paulding wrote, “and I want to allow that process to happen.” ∆
Staff Writer Peter Johnson can be reached at pjohnson@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Winning Images 2018.
In my opinion, the judge and clerk must be impeached/recalled.
The judge failed to apply the MANIFEST TENOR of the law and illegally “legislated from the bench.”
Gong usurped power he does not have.
Both took the law or code into their own hands.
Preposterous.
The law requires ballots whereon signatures do not match to NOT be counted and ballots with NO signatures to be “cured” within eight (8) days.
No authority for the clerk to “extend” exists in the election code.
Elections are defined and finite processes.
There is nothing in the law that requires ballots with missmatched signatures to be counted within 8 days. Nothing. And the courts have confirmed that.
John Davis has no respect for the law, democracy or truth.
Tommy Gong did his job honorably and properly and heroically while facing off against the most despicable trolls and lobbyists to ever infect San Luis Obispo County.
Tommy Gong helped protect the rights of voters of all parties. The courts have confirmed that.
New Times readers need to understand that there is a on-going, deliberate effort by right wing extremists to weaken democracy and suppress voting rights of ethnic minorities. There are a number of despicable lobbyists tied to this effort who are operating in San Luis Obispo County, using phoney names and using the Compton campaign as lleverage and to help publicize and spread their absolute lies meant to destroy honorabl men and women who are working tirelessly to uphold the law and civil rights in the face of those who are doing whatever the think they can to trump the law and the democratic process. This is serious and it is shameful that Lynn Compton, Debbie Arnold and John Peschong continually allow themselves to be used in this despicable effort.
Do the research. Observe. The truth becomes clear to any and all who honor the truth and believe that upright character and honor in office is more crucial than party affiliation.
It is obvious, and the courts have confirmed, that Tommy Gong is doing his job honorably and fairly. The fact that there are trolls attacking him for that is more evidence of the conspiracy against democracy that now infects the Central Coast and threatens all good men and women who believe in the vision of the United States that our great and heroic Founding Fathers gifted us with. We need to honor and respect that in the face of those who try to destroy it for their own selfish and greedy interests.
Vladimir Putin and other Russian propagandists have been successful in persuading many Americans to continually blog and post comments that spread distrust of and contempt for United States law and government.
We see evidence of it everyday in San Luis Obsipo County. Look at the comment section in our various news outlets andyou will find anonymous trolls and those operating under pseudonyms posting propaganda to support Putin’s efforts to divide and weaken America.