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SLO County District 2 supervisor race recount canceled

December 29, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

The Paso Robles woman who requested a recount and inspection of ballots received in the District 2 San Luis Obispo County supervisorial race terminated the recount Thursday morning noting issues with transparency, according to Darcia Stebbens.

Supervisor Bruce Gibson defeated challenger Dr. Bruce Jones by just 13 votes in the November election, prompting Stebbens to request the recount. Before the recount was halted, Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano agreed to count one ballot that her staff had failed to properly tally.

As of Wednesday, Cano’s office had recounted six of the 27 District 2 precincts with no change in the results. The contested ballot had not yet been tallied.

The total cost of the recount was estimated at $80,000. Stebbens had already paid $45,975 before halting the recount, according to Cano.

In a press release, Stebbens outlined her reason for asking for the recount and why she decided to cancel it. Stebbens said she made several records requests weeks before the recount started, but Cano refused to provide multiple records including a list of who actually voted.

Dr. Bruce Jones thanked his supporters and said he plans to continue supporting good government.


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There has been some discussion on ballot box stuffing. How would one “stuff the ballot box”? I assume use the voting rolls in advance to print counterfeit ballots and envelopes (identical to those printed by the County, which have some bar coding as I recall). Then the counterfeiter would have to match the voters’ signatures. Wouldn’t the counterfeit become apparent with the false repetitive bar coding? Wouldn’t a pattern of double voting appear when the actual voter voted? How to match signatures? Doing my best to have a criminal mind, can see ballot destruction but not ballot stuffing. Maybe Vigilant Citizen can explain this concern.


-3

I thought if an election was within certain percentage a recount was automatic, would think a 13 votes difference would meet that requirement.


22

You thought wrong. There is no such provision in California. Any voter can contest an election result. They pay for the recount, but it is refunded to them if the recount changes the election outcome.


0

Some time ago, my grandfather took the cousins and I out on horses to learn to shoot. The Vietnam War was raging and he was worried we would be involved in it. His first lesson was “don’t shoot the horse”.

As a segway: By 11/1/2022, 562 persons in this County died of Covid, overwhelmingly older folks. Assuming they are equally divided between the supervisorial districts, 112 potential registered voters in District 2 have died of Covid. With more than eight in ten eligible Californians registered to vote, this implies 90 registered voters, (112 X 80% = 90). Assuming these registered voters’ turnout would match the district’s 68.23% turnout, 61 votes. Nationwide 45% of older voters identifying themselves as conservative versus 21% as liberal (2021 Gallup poll amalgamation), the result is 15 votes (61 X (45%-21%)) … 15 net conservative vote loss. With the additional ballot, Jones lost by 12 votes.

Even with the gerrymander, insane medical advise to the elderly, shot the horse.


5

If you think the election systems in almost all states is fair and without total fraud or at least incompetence you are fooling yourself. With a vote count this close there should be a automatic recount no charge to anyone but just part of the process government wastes more money on nothing all the time


17

I was part of the last two recounts, worked at a precinct, observed throughout the counting process, and have personally interviewed the current and previous county clerks. I have found the election system has glaring flaws. The system is not transparent and has multiple chain of custody issues. Once a ballot is separated from the envelope it is virtually impossible to remove it from the count. Proving that elections are secure requires more than just trusting the system and administrators. Audits must be transparent and without the ability to audit the overall system you cannot prove fraud in the classic sense. Auditing pieces does not work if gaps exist in the process. The secret ballot is used to protect the voter and that is why it is imperative all ballots entering into the tally are auditable from start to finish. The vote can remain secret but everything else should not. You cannot do that with the system we have. We should not put winning ahead of the accuracy in our elections. Otherwise, Elections will become more about which candidate can stuff the ballot box most efficiently than who people want to be elected. It is sad that people defending this election say they are for fairness and don’t see this glaring hypocrisy.


11

Its the perfect crime… ballot fraud that can’t be proven….


6

You can’t have it both ways. As you said, the purpose of secret ballots is to protect voters. Once a ballot is separated from the envelope, there is no possible way to link it to a voter and that is as designed, so yes, it is impossible to remove it from the count unless on its face (without knowing who cast it) it can be deemed as invalid. There are plenty of other checks and balances to prevent ballot stuffing. They know who voted based on signatures, so any “ballot stuffer” would be detected if more votes are counted than voter signatures.


12

“would be detected if more votes are counted than voter signatures.”


How dare you bring logic and math into counting votes.

/s


3

“The secret ballot is used to protect the voter and that is why it is imperative all ballots entering into the tally are auditable from start to finish.”


If you can tie a ballot after the fact to a voter IT’S not a secret ballot. You don’t get it both ways. The list would leak guaranteed.


-2

“Trust but verify “


7

The report put out by Stebbens was detailed. It shows all the holes in our election process. It shows that our CA legislature created laws to allow misconduct in our elections.


My question to those that shared their views…would you make it a necessity to show a voter ID to vote at the polls on election day?


That alone is how you know what is true and correct. Without ONE LEGAL VOTER ONE VOTE you do not have a TRUE election no matter who wins.


Elaina was Santa Barbara based and Gibson is her dear friend and she lied about that at the interview at the board of supervisor’s meeting….


When is PAYING to learn MUCKRAKING?


5

“created laws to allow misconduct in our elections.”

BS.


-11

What a lame excuse to cancel the recount. The race was close…just recount the votes! The Recorder shouldn’t need money to do what she should do automatically in such a close race.

Also, why does it cost $88,000 to count the votes? That’s ridiculous!


17

It is not about counting

If you have fake money and some of the money is real when you count it the total will always be the same.


-10

Only if you cant tell what a fake dollar bill looks like (hint: there’s training for both counterfeiting detection and counting votes).


-3

If the taxpayers footed the bill for recounts we would be flooded with endless requests$ to claim fraud, dead people voting or whatever. Then the complaints of free stuff from the government would start when the counts don’t change.


“Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas, admitted that she was not aware of any specific evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election at the time she personally lobbied senior White House officials to overturn the results.” the independent


-9

Why was a Santa Barbara based CPA requesting a recount in the first place? Not Mr. Jones, the candidate. Nor the local Republican Party?

Just some out of town muckraker it appears. So sorry she spent $45k to find 1 vote.—it was probably for Gibson.


-3

‘The Paso Robles woman who requested a recount and inspection of ballots received in the District 2 San Luis Obispo County supervisorial race terminated the recount Thursday morning noting issues with transparency, according to Darcia Stebbens”


Mr. Yan Darcia lives in Paso Robles. She is not an out of town muckraker. Mr. Yan how many elections have you worked on, observed or been part of a grassroots effort? What is your experience and expertise?


4

Her LinkedIn profile says otherwise. I am glad she has come up here for the air…. Been part of a few…


-8

“‘The Paso Robles woman who requested ”


‘The Paso Robles woman? Paid for by San Luis Obispo County Citizens Action Team PAC Tax ID # 88-3250123.

“A small but mighty group of citizens are standing up ” from the efundraising page.


Also I think they forgot to pay the hosting for the PAC website “Sorry, the page you are looking for is currently unavailable.Please try again later.”


They claim to want transparency but hide behind Darcia.


1

The hosting is paid until September 2023. It has gone down twice recently, both related to major events in the campaign.


0

That extra vote was a hard Republican so no, it probably was for JONES!


2

Are you saying this Republican was excited that their vote was counted?


-8

The saddest thing to see is someone saying “Fraud” and that’s all it takes for people to become enraged and be convinced FOREVER regardless of facts, proof, testimony, documentation etc.

an example is Mike Lindell. He actually held conventions and conferences, claiming that he had proof and one of the guys that works for me was absolutely convinced that he was right. He was absolutely convinced that the election was stolen in Arizona back in 2016 and no matter how many times, Lindel was proven to be wrong and lying, he still continues to support him. People were convinced that the election was stolen. That insurance agent in Grover Beach bragged about going to the insurrection because she thought that it was stolen. People have died alone in the cold and the heat. Flesh torn from their bodies, bones sticking out of their skin And just ceased living that many times in a land far away so people can have the right to vote and for someone to falsely claim that there was fraud with no proof is really really sad. There’s supposed to be thou shall not bear false witness yet here we are . It’s really really sad that these people say blanket statements like “we should be able to trust our elections.” And others believe that the phrase in itself is proof that these blanket and blatant corruption.

If you look up Jade Helm, you’ll see where our military was training on urban warfare, and somehow it was turned into “our military, was going to arrest civilians and put them in FEMA camps.”


Alex Jones lost a lawsuit that proved he is a pathological liar. Yet on Wednesdays in Templeton on the overpass people are standing there with Infowars banners. He lost a lawsuit that showed he was a pathological liar, and they still support him claiming they’re “the law and order party.”


Sad.


8

The freeway flag patriots should add another local to demonstrate and alienate at. Suggest where West Highway 46 meets US Highway 101. That location would corridor off the Patten Map’s Supervisorial District 1 from the Coasties. This assumes the RPSLO GOP “red team” can retain District 1 for Peschong. I am beginning to wonder.

I guess the two camps are defined as: Coastal Democrat, Liberal, Tribune reading, environmentalist vs. Inland RPSLO, MAGA, Fox News and KPRL listening, fundamentalist.

There was maybe a chance for a door number 3 with Jones, someone that may have been different. I liked his experience with a large hospital system.


-23
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