COUNTY: County Clerk & Recorder (Non-Partisan) – 2026 Primary

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PAY ATTENTION TO THIS RACE!

Ms. Ascension’s opponent is an election denier!

County Clerk and Recorder – Vote for (1)

ENDORSED MICHELLE ASCENSION – County Clerk and Recorder

RECOMMENDATION: YES! Ms. Ascension has lived up to every one of her predecessor’s expectations. Not only has she run this technical and demanding office competently and transparently, she has dealt professionally with the near constant onslaught of our army of election-denier lunatics, one of whom is now her opponent in this race.. She’s smart, professional, experienced, and respected in her field. This county is lucky to have her.

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  • Age: 46
  • City of residence: Oxnard
  • Occupation: City Clerk/Public Information Officer in Port Hueneme, City Clerk in Oxnard, VC Assistant Clerk-Recorder
  • Education: Oxnard College, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
  • Political affiliation: She has not registered any political party to avoid any appearance of bias
  • Funding:
  • Complete list of endorsements: https://www.michelleforvc.com/endorsements
  • Website: https://www.michelleforvc.com/

Sample of Michelle’s endorsements below.

Central Coast Labor Council
SEIU 721

Mark Lunn, Ventura County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters: “I’m confident when Michelle is elected as County Clerk and Recorder, her experience will position her well to hit the ground running on Day One. She has my full support and endorsement.”

PAUL HAROLD “GET OFF MY LAWN” JOHNSON – Computerized System Analyst

RECOMMENDATION: Hah, NO! This man can barely keep his conspiracies straight!
Our local election deniers have already gotten their very own time/money/energy-wasting “Ventura County Election Advisory Committee.” Enough! We do not need to recreate Trump’s cabinet of incompetents here.

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We’re not sure which questionnaire the Election Forum folks had him take. Nothing is publicly listed specifically for potential election officials.

3 -stars! Oh my!

Raise your hand if you’ve seen a really smart friend or relative fall down this incredibly stupid “election integrity” rabbit hole!

If you’ve never interacted with a Q-Anon-type election “integrity” conspiracist, put on a tinfoil hat to fully appreciate this little snippet of nonsense from the Paul Harold Johnson, the man who wants to be our very own official, county-paid election-denier official.

In the video below from a debate between Paul and Michelle, we loved that he thinks the official who runs two county divisions on two floors of the County Administration office should be standing like a Walmart greeter at the customer service counter of the Elections office!

  • “THERE ARE THREE KINDS OF LIES: LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND STATISTICS:
    • Maybe because this election-denier nonsense deals with masses of numbers – in duplicitous charts and misleading statistics – this rabbit hole seems to have an strong gravitational pull for computer people. And with all of these hard-right conspiracy theories, the disruption they cause is both dangerous to democracy and profitable, both in money and power, to their handlers.
  • THE RULE OF RABBIT HOLES:
    • The more strongly a GOP-backed candidate rants about “election integrity,” in direct contradiction the evidence of their own party’s database, the more we are guaranteed that our tax dollars will be wasted on silly posturing and that they absolutely should not be trusted with this particular public office.
      • Restore the Vote Ventura wants handcounting (which is illegal in CA for voting pools over 5000, because it’s so inaccurate)
      • Election Integrity Project: “Election Integrity Project California touts itself as a nonpartisan elections watchdog whose mission is “to defend the integrity of the voting process that protects our freedoms and way of life.
        On the face of it, that sounds noble. Fair elections are the basis of a healthy democracy. But the reality, as a Los Angeles Times investigation documents, is quite different. The organization, founded by a former Santa Clarita tea party activist, in fact has strong ties to the Republican Party, and its efforts are based on the fantasy of mass voting fraud in California that conservatives can’t seem to quit.”

So…who is this “Dr.” Douglas Frank referenced by Paul Johnson in his little rant above? He’s a scamster!

(rop.org) “Has Douglas Frank shown up in your county? Are you seeing similar misinformation, threats of election disruption, or voter intimidation? 

“A determined effort to undermine our elections in Oregon is being perpetrated by a self-described “election integrity expert” named Douglas Frank. Frank, a close associate of Mike Lindell [the My Pillow guy}, crisscrosses the country armed with slideshows pitching a false account of “ghost voters” and unproven claims of “unnatural predictability.”

USA Today recently reported on a national effort to disrupt the 2024 elections. Frank, whose claims have been thoroughly debunked by genuine political science academics, is a part of this effort. His confident and glib speaking style resonates with those who want to believe Trump won the 2020 election.

Even though Frank’s methodology and conclusions have been demonstrated by Stanford and Dartmouth University scholars to be “based on profound statistical errors,” he nonetheless has the ear of the MAGA faithful. Frank has visited Clatsop, Coos, Douglas, and Polk counties (that we know of), and his speaking style and manufactured details convince citizens and some elected officials. He has even made it into the State of Oregon Voter’s Pamphlet for Coos, Douglas, and Curry Counties where candidates running for clerk claim to be “Proudly endorsed by Dr Douglas Frank.””

And what about that Riverside election?

We covered this in our “Governor” section, but basically, Sheriff Bianco took the word of some very sketchy election denialists (Hey – like this Paul Johnson!) and took 1500 boxes of ballots to do an unlawful amateur recount. He flouted State Attorney General Rob Bonta’s orders to return the them and the case is currently in front of the state Supreme Court.

(LATimes) Riverside County voters, represented by the UCLA Voting Rights Project, sued Bianco,  arguing that the sheriff and Riverside County Registrar of Voters Art Tinoco violated Section 15551 of the California Elections Code, which required that ballots remain in the custody of election officials. Bonta raised privacy concerns, particularly that vote-by-mail ballots “contain confidential information, particularly voter signatures, and are strictly protected from disclosure by California law.

Lying to people…it’s a living!

(CNN) “What elevates Frank above the everyday conspiracy theorist are his financial backing and his intensive travel schedule.

Critically, he has the backing of Mike Lindell. The My Pillow CEO is a deep-pocketed purveyor of election disinformation and told CNBC he has already spent $25 million on his efforts to push election fraud claims. 

In an interview, Frank told CNN that he is an “expert witness” for Lindell’s attorney, and he is paid for specific projects. He said groups that invite him to speak cover the cost of his travel and lodging. Others donate money to support his efforts. Still, Frank insisted he wasn’t motivated by money or his newfound stardom among election deniers. 

“My goal is to be able to pay my bills, and it’s working,” Frank said. “I’ve been able to do this a year now and my bank balance isn’t getting smaller.”

What actually happens at an election center? Go work for ours during an election ! or read this description!

(CNN) “Six months out, we start checking all 13,000 pieces of voting equipment in Harris County, opening them up, do they turn on? Have they been tampered with? Can we take them to a voting location? Are all the buttons working?” Longoria said. 

Election officials run accuracy tests on the machines under the watchful eyes of bipartisan observers. On Election Day, officials track the number of people showing up to vote and the number of ballots cast – one of the many safeguards that would catch an election inflated by phantom voters, according to Longoria.

Longoria said she is required by law to update the voter rolls daily, and she noted that it would be effectively impossible for even a coordinated group to break in and inflate the voters rolls in each individual county. 

“Breaking into multiple buildings, multiple systems in tandem, with not a single red flag going off in this incredibly sensitive system, all in unison, right? As you have all eyes on elections from every election staff,” Longoria said. 

Longoria revealed little frustration as she ran through the extensive checks and balances in the election system and debunked a wide range of conspiracy theories. 

“I love answering these questions, and I love geeking out and getting all the details,” she said. “My job is to make sure that you can feel, as a voter, good and secure about our system.”

Reading:
(Propublica.org) Building the “Big Lie”: Inside the Creation of Trump’s Stolen Election Myth
(Brennancenter.org) Analysis: Heritage Foundation’s Database Undermines Claims of Recent Voter Fraud

We check in with the rightest-of-right-wing sources – the Heritage Voter Fraud Cases database for California – for the lowdown on our liberal hotbed of corruption!

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