A citizen-requested hand recount of San Luis Obispo County’s 4th District supervisor race is now four weeks in and about 60 percent complete. So far, it has not changed one vote in the challenged June 7 race between Lynn Compton and Jimmy Paulding.
As of Aug. 9, special SLO County recount boards had tallied 12,391 of the 20,899 total ballots. Paulding won 6,767 of those and Compton won 5,624, which mirrors the initial count, according to the clerk-recorder’s office.
The certified election results state that Paulding defeated Compton by 639 votes, a margin of 3 percentage points.
SLO County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano said that her staff had finished isolating the 4th District ballots on Aug. 9 and is focused now on completing the count.
“We are now in the process of manual tallying the remainder of the precincts,” Cano told New Times by email. “Every day we are updating the results and posting them on the website.”
The citizen who requested the recount, Darcia Stebbens of Paso Robles, is responsible for covering the cost of the effort. She has to pay about $3,000 per day to continue it.
Stebbens and Arroyo Grande resident Richard Patten teamed up with the SLO County Republican Party to form a political action committee that’s raising money for the recount. Financial disclosures for that committee have not yet been filed.
A New Times email to the committee—named the SLO County Citizens Action Team—went unreturned before press time. On Aug. 8, Stebbens went on KPRL’s Sound Off and said that “several” local residents are helping cover the costs.
“I’ll call them concerned citizens who have been assisting me paying for the recount,” Stebbens said.
In the interview, Stebbens indicated that she doesn’t expect the election results to change based on the recount, but said the group is looking for any evidence of voting irregularities and fraud. Without citing evidence of any fraud found, she compared it to counting up a drawer of $1,000 in cash—the cash may add up to $1,000, she said, but it may contain “irregular dollars.”
“We’ll be coming back with a report that will indicate, here are the vulnerabilities we have seen,” Stebbens said. “Ultimately, we don’t want to have the machines counting any ballots.”
According to the committee’s website, the group is looking to raise $150,000 for not just “the recount investigation,” but “court cost[s].” It doesn’t elaborate on what kind of court costs it anticipates.
The local recount proponents—alongside 5th District SLO County Supervisor Debbie Arnold—indulged in more election fraud talk at an “Exposing Election Fraud” event held in Atascadero on July 23, featuring national election skeptics David and Erin Clements.
Organized by 4 The Republic, a far-right local group, the Clementses were described as a “powerhouse couple from New Mexico who, when witnessing the nonsensical results of the 2020 election, felt called to find out WHAT HAPPENED?”
“To every thinking American, it was abundantly clear that America’s REAL CHOICE was Donald J. Trump—as witnessed through his numerous rallies across this nation, drawing well over 5 figures in attendance,” 4 The Republic said in its introduction.
The Clementses, who are behind election audits in Otero County, New Mexico, have toured the U.S. with three-hour presentations of their unsubstantiated election fraud theories. The couple recently lobbied the Otero County Commission to refuse to certify the June 7 primary election (the New Mexico Supreme Court then ordered the commission to certify it).
After their presentation, Supervisor Arnold, who voted not to certify the SLO County primary results last month, thanked the couple and said she would continue pushing for hand-counting ballots in SLO County.
“We have a lot of smart patriots in this room,” said Arnold, flanked by Stebbens and Patten in the front row, according to event video. “You’ve given us confidence. We made a run at this before and were shut down publicly. It feels like to me our action needs to be asking for hand counted paper ballots.”
During the event, a 4 The Republic organizer thanked Arnold and 1st District Supervisor John Peschong for attending the talk. In an Aug. 9 phone call with New Times, Peschong clarified that he was not actually at the event but watching on Zoom for “about an hour and a half,” at the invitation of “a couple of people in the community.”
Peschong, a career Republican Party strategist, has publicly defended the integrity of local elections in the past. He reiterated that position to New Times and said that neither the Clementses’ presentation nor the burgeoning local movement in his party to challenge elections has changed that view.
“The question is, what’s the proof?” Peschong said. “These are concerned citizens and they have every right to voice their opinions. When they speak, I look for evidence. I want them to present evidence there’s been voter fraud committed, and so far, I haven’t seen any evidence presented.” Δ
This article appears in Aug 11-21, 2022.
There in fact was enough fraud within the United States to over turn the 2020 election. If you had taken the time to view Arizona, Georgia recount you would know fraud is well in the USA. To think zero fraud has taken place makes me think you are hiding something! Fraud has been going on in small amounts for years on both sides! One fraudulent vote, takes away one citizens voice! We need to get back to a country of laws and when broken harsh consequences! BTW Hillary asked for a recount when she lost! And you can take that to the bank, remember that statement?
Proof positive that election denialism is a contagious virus not spread by bats but by batty people. Richard Patten drew a redistricting map which he was convinced would preclude any Democrat from winning an election. When that failed, he and his cohort watched over the ballot count and without evidence claimed fraud and demanded a recount. Now they are monitoring the recount and still not a scintilla of evidence proving fraud has been provided.
Offering claims like a cash register may have irregularities even if all cash is present makes no sense. The register records every sale, item and price. That adds up to the cash in the drawer. Not an irregularity.
Bringing in crackpots from other states who spout evidence free conspiracy theories that have been debunked with actual court cases is absurd. As is having a member of the BoS encouraging this nonsense. Who is going to stop this madness?
Why are they so opposed to fair elections? Trying to destroy our electoral process because you are sore losers and refuse to accept defeat cannot be the new norm. Before Trump and his big steal lies we had no complaint about our process of voting. An election that only has your candidate on the ballot is not a fair election.
Sharon, go take your meds!
Update: the District 4 recount is now complete. NOT A SINGLE VOTE WAS TABULATED INCORRECTLY! 100% success.
Has that stopped the crazies? No. Forensic audits are being demanded on the actual ballots. Presumably, a team of pandas will be flown in to taste some of the ballots to ensure they are not bamboo.