County Clerk-Recorder awaits recall petition against Bruce Gibson 

The group behind the renewed recall efforts against 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson has until 5 p.m. on May 2 to submit a petition containing the requisite signatures from registered voters of the old district.

Organized by the Committee to Support the Recall of Supervisor Bruce Gibson, the petition needs at least 7,375 signatures for SLO County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano to verify over the next 30 days.

"We do have to do what is called a 'raw count' of signatures, and what that process entails is we have to separate the sections into stacks according to the number of signatures that are on each petition," Cano told New Times on April 30.

The committee filed a second notice of intention to circulate a recall petition on Nov. 28 last year. It arrived almost two weeks after Cano pulled the plug on its initial process to remove Gibson from office after the committee missed the deadline to publicize the recall petition in a local newspaper.

In 2022, Gibson defeated his conservative opponent Bruce Jones by a margin of 13 votes, going on to represent a version of the 2nd District outlined in the previously adopted Patten map. Before the Board of Supervisors adopted a new redistricting map in April 2023, the 2nd District comprised Atascadero, San Miguel, Lake Nacimiento, San Simeon, Cambria, Cayucos, and the rural parts of western Templeton and Paso Robles.

According to previous New Times reporting, original recall petitioner John Whitworth said that the movement to remove Gibson from office sprouted from the supervisor's support of reducing the voter threshold for special taxes. Whitworth claimed that it would repeal Proposition 13, while Gibson said that he supports it.

It is unclear how many signatures the committee collected as of May 1. Whitworth declined to talk to New Times. The committee didn't respond to New Times' request for comment by press time. Its website advertised a slew of signing locations in Atascadero, San Miguel, and Morro Bay. A call for more signatures on the committee's Facebook page said that since March 28, people collected signatures four days a week at the Republican Headquarters in Atascadero.

"Callers will be contacting registered Republicans (there will be a script) to determine whether they've signed the recall petition or are interested in signing," read the statement posted on Facebook. "Drivers will then take signature gatherers to households that have been contacted."

Signature gathering organizer Linda Katz Quinlan told New Times that she had no comment on May 1.

Gibson said that the "threshold question" is whether the committee will get enough signatures.

"It's been deadly quiet. ... My thought is they probably don't have enough signatures," he said. "If they have the signatures, they'd be beating their chest about that."

If the committee submits the petition with enough signatures, the County Clerk-Recorder's Office will submit the verified results to the Board of Supervisors in July, according to the tentative recall schedule. The officials must call for an election by the end of July, green-lighting the recall to appear on the general election ballot in November. Gibson told New Times that he will campaign "to explain the truth" if the recall proceeds to the election stage.

A balloted recall needs a simple majority of 50 percent plus one vote to succeed. Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint someone to fill the vacancy if Gibson is ousted.

"The irony of having the most liberal governor ... appoint my successor makes me smile," Gibson, whose fifth term ends in 2026, said.

If recalled, Gibson's removal from office would be historic for SLO County.

"I have looked back in as much history as I could and even spoke with our Elections Division supervisor, who has been here for almost 40 years, and she doesn't believe that a supervisor has ever been successfully recalled," Cano said. Δ