SLO County election recount identical to original results, but observers are still skeptical

The manual recount for the District 4 Board of Supervisors race is 60% complete, and the results so far are exactly the same as the original count, County Clerk Recorder Elaina Cano said Wednesday.

Still, observers say they are skeptical of the election process.

As of Wednesday morning, ballots from 13 of the 23 precincts had been counted — with Jimmy Paulding winning 6,767 of the votes and incumbent Lynn Compton taking 5,624 votes, which is identical to the original ballot counts from those precincts.

“That’s pretty impressive,” Cano said. “Even with a 1% manual tally you always have a few that are off.”

The staff that conducted the original machine count of the ballots is also carrying out the manual tally, Cano said.

She said discrepancies can show up when the original election staff interpret a mark on a ballot differently than the recount staff. For example, if someone used check marks instead of filling in the bubble next to a candidate’s name, staff then adjudicate the ballot to decide the intent of the voter.

The fact that her staff have found no discrepancies in the ballots shows their attention to detail, Cano said.

“My staff are brilliant,” Cano said. “Certainly kudos to this team.”

Darcia Stebbens, who requested the recount, remains concerned about the election process. She said she’s worried about the integrity of the ballots themselves — such as someone filling out another voter’s ballot.

If any ballots weren’t filled out by the appropriate voter, it wouldn’t matter if the recount shows that the original count was accurate.

“It’s like recounting a cash register that has $700 of U.S. dollars and $300 of monopoly money,” she said.

She requested the recount so she and the SLO County Citizens Action Team could take a look at the ballots, she said. The group formed to support the recount.

While observing the recount, she said the SLO County Citizens Action Team saw “patterns that could perhaps mean it’s not one person one vote” but declined to share evidence or details about the patterns.

Instead of sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters, Stebbens said the county should require people to request a mail-in ballot if they can’t vote in person.

That is not possible, however, because as of September 2021, California law now requires that every voter be mailed a ballot.

“It’s not a great system, and it has a lot of vulnerabilities. We want it to change,” Stebbens said. “It’s not a Republican-Democrat thing. I’m trying to protect your vote as much as my vote.”

Richard Patten, the Arroyo Grande resident who submitted the redistricting map that was approved by the three conservative members of the Board of Supervisors, was also present Wednesday to observe the recount.

What does the recount look like?

Cano moved the recount from the Election’s Office to a larger conference room down the hall to fit more staff, she said.

Recounts occur in teams of four people — one person reads the ballot and calls out the vote, two others tally the vote, and a fourth person checks the call and the tally for accuracy, Cano said. Two teams are carrying out the recount, she said.

Staff can count four to six precincts per day, and should finish the recount by the end of the week. The count is prolonged, however, when observers pause the count to challenge the ballots, Cano said.

Cano said that the potential for error with a manual tally is much higher than with the machine tally. During the recount, her staff counted one vote for the incorrect candidate, so the total was one vote over for one candidate and one vote under for the other.

“Because of this, they then went back and recounted the entire precinct, found the ballot that was missorted, continued recounting and then balanced the totals with the certified results,” Cano said.

This took the rest of the day, Cano said.

“That was done by human error,” Cano said.

Cano said she and Elections Office deputy director Melissa Lile have been working 40 hours a week on the recount, and they’re also in the middle of preparing the general election — which has more than 20 jurisdictions and more than 100 contests. Cano and Lile are working overtime on weekdays and the weekends to prepare for November, she said.

“That’s a lot,” Cano said. “We’re doing two jobs right now.”

Cano encouraged folks skeptical of the election process to reach out to her office for information.

“There will always be those that will not feel as secure with our system,” Cano said. “I hope that this recount process and showing how accurate it is will ease the some of those concerns.”

How much has the recount cost?

Stebbens, as the person who requested the recount, must cover the cost. She’s deposited $50,203.80 with the county so far, Cano said.

“The citizens have to pay for it, which is a little ridiculous,” Stebbens said, noting that the county is funded by taxpayer dollars.

In order for the count to start, Stebbens must deposit a check with the county for the estimated cost of that day each morning at 9 a.m. The recount costs between $2,500 and $4,000 a day, fluctuating depending on staffing and materials needed, Cano said.

If the certified ballot count is accurate, Stebbens will forfeit the funds. If the recount reveals that there were enough miscounted votes to overturn the election, the county will return a portion of the funds to Stebbens, the news release said. The county will also return any money not used for the recount to Stebbens.