Recall effort against Bruce Gibson fails with insufficient signatures 

The second round of efforts to recall 2nd District Supervisor Bruce Gibson came to a screeching halt on May 2 after its proponents failed to gather enough signatures supporting their cause.

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• File Photo By Jayson Mellom
• MOVING ON Second District Supervisor Bruce Gibson called the failed recall efforts "one less distraction" from the issues he's tackling in SLO County.

"The requirements for recalling an elected official were changed after the Newsom recall, which put the requirement of signatures needed at 20 percent, unlike previous recalls that only required 10 percent," said a press release from the Committee to Support the Recall of Supervisor Bruce Gibson. "We were unable to get the required 20 percent of the signatures from Old District 2 (where he was elected)."

"Old District 2" refers to the district as outlined in the previously adopted Patten map, which groups like the SLO County Citizens for Good Government and League of Women Voters of SLO County alleged gerrymandered the county's five districts to favor Republicans and disenfranchised voters. The Patten map's 2nd District comprised Atascadero, San Miguel, Lake Nacimiento, San Simeon, Cambria, Cayucos, and the rural parts of western Templeton and Paso Robles.

In 2022, Gibson won the supervisor race in that district against Republican Bruce Jones by a margin of 13 votes. Since then, the SLO County Board of Supervisors repealed the Patten map and adopted new redistricting boundaries last April. Gibson also fielded a manual recount request of the 2nd District supervisor race, which showed an unchanged result from the County Clerk-Recorder's Office.

The recall committee claimed Gibson's advocacy of reducing the voter threshold for special taxes would result in a repeal of Proposition 13, prompting the need for him to be recalled. Gibson told New Times in a prior report that he supports Proposition 13.

The recall committee needed at least 7,375 signatures from registered voters belonging to the Patten map's 2nd District who made up 20 percent of the constituency.

County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano disputed the committee's statement about the alleged reduction in the signature requirement from 20 percent of registered voters to 10 percent of the constituency reportedly going into place after the failed recall against Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"No, the signature threshold for recalling a local office has been the same since Jan. 1, 2003," she told New Times on May 8.

According to state legislation, a ballot-qualifying recall must contain signatures from 20 percent of registered voters in an electoral jurisdiction if the voter registration in the area is at least 10,000 but below 50,000. A recall petition only needs signatures from 10 percent of voters in an electoral jurisdiction if registration stands at 100,000 or more.

Cano confirmed that the recall committee didn't contact her office about the failed petition, and that it didn't need to since it didn't collect enough signatures.

"Since the redistricting map had been changed, there were literally hundreds, if not thousands of people we had to turn away who could not sign," the recall committee's press release said. "This shows it's not only District 2 citizens who are extremely unhappy with his progressive ideology and actions, so are people throughout the county."

The press release added that the recall committee organized an online survey about signature participation. According to the committee, 43 percent of people said they would sign the recall petition; 55 percent answered, "I wish I could"; and less than 1 percent said they wouldn't sign.

The ultimate number of signatures gathered by the recall committee remains unclear. Committee representatives didn't respond to New Times' requests for comment.

Gibson told New Times that he expected the recall efforts to fail, calling the fizzled attempt "one less distraction" from his work as supervisor.

"I also had faith that the voters of San Luis Obispo County would see this as an abuse of the recall process," he said. "I would be surprised if [the recall committee] got even half of the signatures." Δ