San Luis Obispo County’s Top Elections Official Resigns
SLO Citizens Present 102 Affidavits Against Tommy Gong: 2020 Election Fallout
The Citizens of San Luis Obispo County presented Tommy Gong the County Clerk Recorder with 102 complaints about his job performance as the County Clerk Recorder and his support for the Dominion voting system on June 1, 2021 and by June 4, 2021 Gong announced his resignation.
San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong will leave his position July 2, 2021 for a new elections official job in Contra Costa County. Gong served as clerk-recorder since 2015.
Gong saw elections officials throughout the state begin to retire after the 2020 election and saw an opportunity to move closer to family and advance his career.
Many people suspect that Gong’s departure was the contentious political environment following the 2020 election — which included a county Board of Supervisors meeting during which a commenter asked if Gong was “a member of the Chinese Communist Party” — “probably played a factor” in his decision to leave the area. But clearly the Affidavits were the tipping point for gongs sudden departure.
Most people feel Gong realized he had broken his Oath of Office and was personally liable for his oath violations. The best he could do is resign because the charges listd in the Affidavits were true.
The charges included U.S. Constitutional and state election code violations.
Tommy Gong has 10 days from the presentment of the Affidavits to respond. Failure by Gong to respond to the Affidavits by June 11, 2021 will require the Affidavits be turned over to the SLO County Sheriff for investigation and possible prosecution.
Gong’s last day has not yet been announced. The SLO County Board of Supervisors is then tasked with appointing a new clerk recorder to serve until Jan. 2023. At that time, the winner of the 2022 election will take the seat.
Then the assistant clerk recorder, Gong won his first election in Nov. 2014. During his tenure, Gong faced multiple challenges regarding his job and his family.
During the 2018 election, Gong’s office miscategorized one of the three seats that were up for grabs on the Los Osos CSD Board.
In 2019, a San Luis Obispo judge sentenced Sherry Gong, Tommy Gong’s wife, to about six months in jail for embezzling more than $32,000 from the booster club of the Atascadero High School band.
Then in the 2020 election, thousands of voters in San Luis Obispo received two vote-by-mail ballots, while other voters in rural SLO County found themselves removed from the voter rolls.
During a heated SLO County Board Of Supervisors meeting on May 4, in which supervisors debated election rules, more than 130 people called in to voice their opinions. One caller accused Gong of being a member of the Chinese Communist Party, prompting an article in the LA Times about anti-Asian sentiment and Trump supporters on the Central Coast.
SLO COUNTY LEADERS REACT TO GONG’S DEPARTURE: By the SLO Tribune
County leaders expressed disappointment about Gong’s decision to leave, especially following the racism and barrage of criticisms he faced at last month’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Following a radio campaign coordinated by the county Republican Party, hundreds of callers left messages calling for a “forensic audit” of the local voting system, voter identification rules, limiting voting by mail and hand counting of ballots.
They also parroted misinformation about the 2020 election, including unfounded concerns about the county’s Dominion Voting System tabulation machines.
During the meeting, Gong explained he’s not legally allowed to conduct the audit, and many of the changes callers wanted see are out of his control and in the hands of California lawmakers.
The nature of the calls — in particular, the racist attack on Gong — prompted Supervisors Bruce Gibson, John Peschong and Dawn Ortiz-Legg to apologize to him and express their confidence in his office. Supervisors Debbie Arnold and Lynn Compton did not state their unequivocal support for Gong.
Reached for comment on Friday, Gibson and Ortiz-Legg directly linked Gong’s decision to leave to that meeting.
“I am very sorry to see this happen, but I understand, sort of, why he’s doing this,” Gibson said. “It’s in large part because he did not have the support of the full Board of Supervisors following the appalling attacks on his integrity.”
Gibson said offensive comments like the ones leveled at Gong “need to stop, because they’re undermining our democracy.”
“I am really disturbed at the vicious attack,” he said. “It was a raw partisan play conspired by a disgraced former president, and it has no place in the civic life of our county.”
Ortiz-Legg said she’s not surprised by Gong’s departure, but “it’s a real gut punch.”
“Actions have consequences,” she added.
“I think it’s a sad state of affairs when you have someone who has conducted a completely compliant election to feel like he’s been run out of town,” Ortiz-Legg said.
Arnold said she hasn’t spoken to Gong yet, but she’s “happy for Tommy if he’s accepted a job he’s happy about.”
She said she hopes the comments made during the Board of Supervisors meeting aren’t the reason for Gong’s departure, and she didn’t think they were made against him, personally.
When asked why she didn’t express support for Gong, or join her colleagues in condemning racism against him, Arnold said she “didn’t want to speak against the concerns,” and that all the supervisors receive unfavorable comments.
“I took that as being there were a lot of people who were concerned, not with Tommy,” she said.
Peschong and Compton have not responded to The Tribune’s request for comment.
Randall Jordan, SLO County Republican Party of SLO County chair, said the group was disappointed to learn of Gong’s resignation and he distanced the party from the calls made to the Board of Supervisors.
“Members of the Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County (RPSLOC) made no attacks May 4th on Tommy Gong and openly denounce any racist remarks made by others,” Jordan said. “We are saddened that Tommy has decided to leave San Luis Obispo County but feel there may have been other factors other than our ‘questioning’ of our county’s voting protocols that may have influenced his decision.”
Jordan continued, “RPSLOC will continue to seek honest, fair and transparent elections in San Luis Obispo County, which all citizens should endorse. We wish Tommy Gong and his family only the best in his new position and new home.”
Rita Casaverde, chair of the county Democratic Party, said she and other party members were “shocked” by the attacks on Gong and think it’s important to have conversations about voting without resorting to personal insults.
The Democratic Party will not let the racist attacks against Gong “be swept under the rug,” she said.
“It’s really sad that that’s going to be Tommy Gong’s last memory of San Luis Obispo County,” Casaverde said.
She said the party is concerned the conservative majority on the Board of Supervisors will select Gong’s replacement, and voters need to pay attention to county politics more than ever before.
“It’s all lining up to give us a very scary situation for the 2022 election,” Casaverde said.
The League of Women Voters of SLO County thanked Gong for his service and praised his staff for its work.
“He and his staff have done an exemplary job, particularly in the demanding 2020 elections,” co-presidents Cindy Marie Absey and Ann Havlik said in a statement to The Tribune. “Last year’s elections were conducted in a safe, fair and secure manner, resulting in a record turnout. It is unfortunate that the negative comments have taken center stage and put San Luis Obispo County in the national news.”
Looking forward, they emphasized the importance of conducting elections in a “professional and nonpartisan manner.”
“We would hope that the Board realizes the importance of this, and we will be closely following how the Board moves forward with filling the opening in this vital elected office,” the said.
