Conspiracy theories finally completed their takeover of a San Luis Obispo County supervisor: Debbie “Water Banking and Election Fraud Are Real” Arnold, the 5th District‘s very own super MAGA conservative! She was the sole elected official on the Board of Supervisors who voted against approving the June 7 primary elections results.
“For me, and call it a protest vote, I won’t be supporting this today,” she said during the board’s July 19 meeting. “I’m not supportive of the changes to our election process, and I think that they’ve created so many vulnerabilities that the public is losing confidence in our election process.”
Taking a page straight out of the cuckoo-banana playbook, Arnold’s concerned about vote-by-mail ballots, ballot tabulation, and drop boxes—all of which have been around for years.
“I still have some unresolved concerns about the accuracy of ballot counting,” she said.
I have some unresolved concerns about her ability to lead the county with a clear head because it’s clouded with the thoughts of a small few who have her ear rather than the many.
Her concerns about “the public” seem to only extend to fellow conspiracy peddlers, who now have a political action committee supported by the Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County (RPSLO). The San Luis Obispo County Citizens Action Team filed paperwork with the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office on July 14 and listed Darcia Stebbens, who filed the recount request for the District 4 race; Laura Mourdant, an aggressively righty-tighty RPSLO member; and Richard Patten, who’s been outspoken about his views on election fraud since his redistricting map was adopted last year.
“We have a group of concerned citizens spending their own money to do a partial audit, and um, from talking to them or what they’ve expressed to me, this is not to change the election results, but to restore confidence in the election process,” Arnold said. “I appreciate these citizens, again, giving of their own time and money.”
Obviously, they’re not going to spend their own money or there wouldn’t be a brand new PAC out there with Stebbins’ name on the treasurer line. But at least someone said what everyone was thinking! Stebbins requested a recount that they don’t believe will change the election results. So what exactly are they hoping to accomplish?
Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano told New Times that the recount demand Stebbins submitted to the county included requests that lead Cano to believe “she’s looking for something in the system that I don’t believe she’s going to find.”
On July 19, Stebbins dropped off the first payment of many in this recount effort. She has to pay by cashier’s check, money order, or cash every day. And Cano thinks it will cost upward of $100,000 and take at least 36 days. Who’s got that kind of money just hanging around?
RPSLO hopes you do! After all, they are pro “family, faith, freedom” and “100 percent pro American”—whoops, I think they forgot to put “pro autocracy” in their slogan. RPSLO posted a call for donations to this new PAC on its Facebook page: “A small but mighty group of citizens are standing up for truth and transparency, will you stand with them?”
Um, no.
They want to purge the county’s voter rolls, to require photo voter ID, have election day only voting, a “smaller consolidation of precincts” (I have no idea what that means), and to count precinct voted ballots on election night only.
Don’t you feel good about this?
If you do, pay up, bitches! This recount is going to cost $3,000 a day, at the very least. You better open up that pocketbook and write a check to Stebbins—not the PAC. She’s the one who has to pay the piper. And I think writing “anti-democracy” on the memo line should suffice.
I want my flag back. And can we also take back “pro American?” Tea Party conservatives like the ones who populate RPSLO’s membership don’t deserve it.
This mistrust and alleged vulnerabilities “the public” is apparently worried about are driven by elected officials like Arnold, abusing a taxpayer-funded dais that she sits on to spread misinformation.
Cano has 100 percent confidence in the election process.
“Be sure you’re getting your information from the right source,” Cano said. “It’s when other people try to provide their own opinions about how things are conducted, I think that’s when the confusion and mistrust … “—I’ll finish that thought for her: That’s where both begin and end.
With people like Arnold, who’s concerned about things she obviously doesn’t understand, such as “modem chips,” “rank choice,” and Dominion’s access to ballot counting machines. Arnold, who doesn’t believe the answers she’s receiving straight from the source of county elections.
The Clerk-Recorder’s Office should be concerned about preparing for the November election, when more than 100 local offices will be on the ballot. Instead, staffers are chasing a red herring. Even if RPSLO disciples will be footing the bill—with CalCoast “News” cheering them on, spreading election fraud conspiracies, and financially benefiting from the process as RPSLO pushes the CalCoast blog on its website: “Help make CalCoast No. 1 for fair and balanced local news”—county staff will still be spending their time on the recount while the nonbelievers complaining about a lack of transparency watch them. Δ
The Shredder ranks Arnold last. Send thoughts to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jul 21-31, 2022.
Just like the Koch-funded Moms for Liberty astroturf campaign against teaching history, the GOP will load local election boards with sock puppets intending to undermine confidence in our election process. How much of Zuckerberg’s $500,000 contribution to the Amistad Project did Arnold get?
Didn’t Stebbins and Patten sit like two election vultures on a wire watching the entire election ballot counting? Photos of them sitting with jaundiced eyes hoping to find bottomless suitcases of rice and bamboo ballots sent in from China and who knows where else were circulated. Sadly, for them, ballot counting was transparent and uneventful under Cano’s watchful eye.
But, that wasn’t enough for these election deniers and their Supervisor Arnold the Doubter. Now, we must purge the rolls, bring a headshot to vote on a single day and even shrink the number of places to vote in person to appease these troublemakers. It is the majority of voters who should be able to weigh in on these extreme restrictive measures, not 3 nasty, conspiracy theorists hell bent on destroying our democracy for their own corrupt ends.
Guessing, that if the state was full of Republicans, such as Utah (which votes completely by mail), there would be no questioning of mail-in ballots. I’ve been voting absentee for about 40 years and not until the last few years has that process ever been questioned. It’s all gearing up for a 2024 steal when MAGA Republicans can claim widespread voter fraud and allow legislatures in states such as Georgia and Arizona to overturn the vote.
Half of Americans now believe the nation is headed to Civil War. This will be the reason. With more than 120 guns on the street for every 100 U.S. citizens, I think the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers will be surprised how many of those guns are owned by progressives.
“guns owned by progressives”? Is a group who requires safe spaces and trigger warnings in order to survive opposing opinions, ever going to be much of a threat to anybody? If they feel “unsafe” seeing a MAGA hat, how would they endure the horrors of real deadly combat? Once they realize that they are not in a shooting video game, they will surely wet themselves. If they lack the self-discipline and will to hold down a job, how will they successfully prosecute a military campaign? Attacking cops at demonstrations who are forced to restrain their responses is hardly a test. Hopefully, for the sake of everyone, let’s hope it never comes to that.
“If they lack the self-discipline and will to hold down a job,”
Ok, unpersuasive argument, Squidsie, with all due respect. Seven out of the top 10 richest states in the U.S. with the highest GDP (gross domestic product) have Democratic governments. California has, by far, the highest GDP, at nearly $4 billion. In fact, California has the fifth largest GDP in the world. California attracts the best and the brightest and the broad majority of Californians are progressive. Furthermore, the higher the education level a person has generally leads to a more liberal outlook on the world. Look it up.
But, maybe you want California to be like the poorest, dumbest states in the union, such as Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Missouri, Louisiana, Indiana and Tennessee, which were recently rated among the top 10 “Worst States” to live in.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/14/these-10-s…
My guess, you like California a lot better.
Yes, indeed, I hope it never comes to anything like internal strife, but as long as Republicans such as Trump, DeSantis, Cruz, Boebert, Kosar, et. al. continue to question the legitimacy of our elections, we are in trouble. And my money is on the Left.
Make that $4 trillion.
“The broad majority of Californians are progressive”? Hardly. While much of California is “branded” Democrat, most Californians, including most of the growing Latino vote, are moderate. Progressivism only predominates on our campuses and in college towns, where wacky causes like the left’s war on gender hold favor. While Democrats generally may be financially self-supporting, we have all listened to the incessant entitled demands of college town progressives for freebies, like subsidized housing and forgiveness of student loans, demands that suggest that many progressives are not self-supporting or likely to be so anytime soon. Increasingly, higher education is not necessarily reflected in greater earnings, as many graduate with worthless degrees in art, literature and social justice studies, and find themselves working in fast food like Starbucks.
Yes, I prefer California, and hope to be dead before it collapses from mismanagement.
And if questioning election outcomes is such a sin, I hope that all the Democrats who claimed that Trump was elected only due to Russian collusion, even after Mueller’s investigation showed otherwise, are doing their penance.
I see your $4 trillion, and raise you a trillion. With Biden’s runnaway inflation, reckless betting is safe and painless.
Thank you Shredder!!!
These right-wing cult members are nuts.
It did not take long for the local yellow press CCN to start spinning their conspiracy theories. “SLO County’s Clerk-Recorder Counts on Herself” (July 1, 2022) is full of false speculation and false conspiracy theories.
Before that, Stew Jenkins, the losing candidate for Clerk-Recorder, unethically lurked around the Clerk-Recorder Election Office as an election observer. Seems he cannot see his conflicts of interest.
Now, Darcia Stebbens, of Paso Robles, applied for a recount of District 4, on behalf of Compton. A recount will be a waste of Stebbens’ money, and a waste of the clerk-recorder’s and our time.
As usual, CCN and local radio helped spread conspiracies by Debbie Arnold, from 10 years ago, about an elevator ride with Adam Hill (deceased) and Bruce Gibson, saying that she was bullied, which is all vague dated hearsay. Gibson does not corroborate her claims.
The cabal at CCN should really stop kicking the ‘dead horse,’ (Hill), any more. The dead horse will not get up, he is dead. You cannot torture him anymore. CCN is a trumpist cult. Enough with the paranoia and conspiracy theories.
The Clerk-Recorder and their staff conducted an excellent election and showed that SLO County has “election integrity.” We the voters have had enough of the right-wing’s trumpist lies.
I’m just waiting for the New York Times or the LA Times to do another disturbing commentary on the local GOP of SLO County, again.
Enough of these conspiracy theories – Please Stop!
I may be back with an open letter to Stew, one of the main conspiracy theorists.
Having studyed cults, psychology, politics and for decades, here are some observation of why Stew Jenkins lost that election so badly, and how he and his crew at the online yellow press are retaliating against the Clerk-Recorder with this recount; with a plea to stop their dangerous nonsense.
*******
Stew came in third in the clerk-recorder’s race, and he wonders why he lost. It also appears that he is a bad sport and a sore loser. It is likely that he is working with Arnold, Stebbens and Patton, behind the scenes, along with CCN, in this bogus recount of the ballots in District 4.
And knowing Stew, it sounded like that he most likely dictated the letter to the editor to CCN by Cynthia Muir SLO County’s Clerk-Recorder Counts on Herself” (7-1-22), which was full of false speculations and conspiracy theories. It sounded like something he would write.
Stew lost the election because the voters don’t like bullies, sociopaths, and/or narcissists, they are usually one in the same. Most voters like genuine people that care about their constituents and the common good, rather than sociopathic narcissists craving power.
He might want to stop running for office, since from the results, he will never win any local political races. The Shredder referred to Stew as “Mr. 15%.” And Ken Hampian said to the BOS meeting to select the clerk-recorder, to paraphrase, Stew is a political hack.
Even with the recount, it was good to see that Compton lost in District 4 due to her lies and secrecy and lack of policies, while avoiding doing interviews with the local newspaper of record. The conspiracies and lies that she spread with her vile dark mailers were sick. Even with the yellow press online tabloid working overtime, she lost. The recount is sure to find that the first election count for District 4 was accurate. What a waste of time.
Ms. Cano is the only candidate with experience in clerk-recorder and election offices. And she is doing a good job in that position, along with her staff. Stew Jenkins has no experience to hold that office, and the voters knew that.
Thats how it goes, everybody knows” – Leonard Cohen
Stew suffers from white male entitlement syndrome. A person who thinks he is better than minorities and/or women in elected positions of public trust, and that thinks he should therefore be anointed to an ‘elected’ position over more qualified persons. Election results contradict that delusion of white male entitlement syndrome.
“I’m an expert, because I say I am – “The Garden of Allah” – Don Henley fits the times, listen to it.
A writer wrote an excellent LTE to the Tribune “Cano Did the Right Thing,” showing the difference between Stew and the elected clerk-recorder when it comes to who has ethics and morals, and who does not. Hint: the person that has morals and ethics is not Stew. Ms. Cano did recuse herself from any involvement in the election counting. Jenkins should have recused himself from being an election observer, since he was a candidate. More conflicts of interests. How does he miss all of those conflicts of interest and other unethical actions?
It is amazing that he did not see all of those conflicts of interest running for clerk-recorder. The attacks on Tommy Gong with all of Stews and CCNs cult minions and attackers at the BOS meeting’s public comments, which made Gong resign. It looked like Joseph McCarthy’s style of fascism. “Have you (and your cult) no decency?”
Stew and the three right-wing supervisors on the BOS seem to be following trump’s playbook, to cheat in elections to win at all costs, even if they have to lie, and try to discredit our elections system. Or if they lose an election, they will just torture the electoral system and try and destroy it. That is not democracy, that is fascism.
And then there was that dirty trick, which Stew more than likely concocted, of having his buddy T. K. Gurnee’s and his old high school buddy, Mike Nolan, file that frivolous lawsuit about comma placement on the ballot, of what Ms Canos name should be on the ballot. That was pathetic and sleazy, and most likely an intimidation tactic. It was good that the judge threw that frivolous law suit out of court.
The attorneys involved with that frivolous lawsuit should be sanctioned.
Rudy Giuliani and Lindsay Graham have been subpoenaed for their election tampering in Georgia. That is not much different than the shenanigans going on here in SLO County by the local right-wing.
Enough with the white patriarchy, paranoia and conspiracy theories.
Please stop this destructive nonsense, and convince your Tea Party cult to stop concocting this misinformation about not having election integrity, for the sake of our democracy.
The truth is we have election integrity here in SLO County, thanks to having a competent person in charge at the clerk-recorder / election office.
[My thoughts about cults, after studying cults, politics, psychology and fascism for decades:
I do not know who my brother has become over the last ten or so years. He seems to feed on hate and conspiracy theories, as cult members do.
Cults tend to eliminate the individual, and replace it with the groupthink of the cause’ to capture more cult members, all to gain power and control.
It is sad, my brother is a stranger to me. Makes me shake my head.
What happened to the guy? Oh, thats right, he was brainwashed by the CCN Cult.]
“Herrings and geese”? Is this an opinion column, or a cook book?