The League of Women Voters supports making voting as easy and accessible as possible for all registered voters. We were disappointed in the May 4 decision by the SLO County Board of Supervisors to not expand vote-by-mail and early voting. We were pleased that the supervisors voted to increase funding for ballot processing equipment, high volume drop boxes, and mobile vote centers for the more remote areas of our county.
The tone of public comment at the board meeting on May 4 was truly disheartening. We were dismayed to hear so much misinformation repeated and such hostility toward the dedicated public servants who maintain the integrity of our elections. We commend the three supervisors who spoke up for the county clerk-recorder and his staff. We regret that their colleagues on the board felt unable to support them.
We urge all voters to educate themselves about the election process, and to consider volunteering at the polls to see the process firsthand. We also encourage voters to request permanent vote-by-mail status. This doesn’t prevent you from voting in person but it does ensure that you can vote if you can’t make it to the polls on Election Day.
We continue to have great confidence in the integrity of elections in our county. Public trust in our democratic institutions is vital to maintain our freedoms. We hope that by educating voters about how voting actually works, trust will be restored, misinformation diminished, and participation in our democracy increased.
Cindy Marie Absey
Ann Havlik
co-presidents
League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County
This article appears in May 13-23, 2021.
I have been an observer in the Elections Office during ballot counting, and I was so impressed with the professionalism and openness of the entire process. Under constant observation of management and citizen observers, the ballots are processed and the signatures compared to those on record. If there is any legibility, etc questions multiple people are called in and must agree before the ballot is counted. If there are issues that can’t be resolved, the voter is notified and given the opportunity to come in and correct the problem.
Every ballot is given every opportunity to be correctly counted, no matter whether Dem/Repub/etc. The BOS made a highly partisan mistake in their decision to limit voting options for many people, they will regret it next election cycle.
You said it, Dan. Our local election process has been outstanding, and our county clerk recorders office has done a fantastic job under the leader ship of Tommy Gong. Anybody who has looked into it would know that. Unfortunately there are some people spreading horrible propaganda in our community with the lies aimed at disrupting the great system we’ve been blessed with. If anyone tells you the clerk recorders office has not been doing a good job, they are lying or have succumbed to the lies of those who wish to corrupt our election system for the benefit of the few at the expense of the majority.
Tommy Gong visits his filthy wife (Sherry Gong who stole tens of thousands of dollars from our children in SLO County) in jail. I don’t trust him, nor our election “system” in this bigoted bedroom county, nor the nefarious voting machine software which was modified by CIA to steal elections in Venezuela and Iraq. After watching the subsequent investigation and court hearings, I focused on the female Indian American software engineer, who’s testimony (the person who programmed the software) convinced many engineers and politicians voting machine software was manipulated during 2020 national election. This was her conclusion. An expert, under testimony. At least this time, white people who are to blame for all of this TYPICAL novel confusion and corruption, are arguing and crying victimhood among themselves. Left wing and right wing are from the same bird, the shit bird. Sleep walkers, and suckers.