Tommy Gong is a nice person, well intentioned, well meaning. That said he made a massive mistake when he implemented the Dominion voting system in San Luis Obispo County. As part of the contract he gave the private company the right to control any audit of the system—or if there would be an audit. In other words, a private company was allowed to hide any faults, problems and mistakes from the public.
He gave away the right of the people to assure they had honest elections and allowed a private company to control our elections—instead of the people and its elected officials.
Now that he is gone, I would hope the SLO Board of Supervisors would appoint someone that would immediately allow a complete audit of the system. What id Dominion hiding that they are afraid of an audit. I know Bernie Madoff didn’t want audit—and he had a reason.
Tommy Gong is leaving job as SLO County’s top elections official
By Lindsey Holden, San Luis Obispo Tribune, 6/4/21
San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong will leave his position this summer for a new elections official job in the Bay Area.
Gong — who’s served as clerk-recorder since 2015 — told The Tribune he will depart the county in July to begin working as a deputy clerk-recorder in Contra Costa County.
In a Friday news release, Gong called the new position “the opportunity of a lifetime.” He said the move will situate him closer to family members, many of whom live in the Bay Area.
“Being away from my family for so long has really been tugging at me,” Gong said.
Gong said the coronavirus pandemic made him realize how difficult it is to be apart from his aging parents, who live in the Central Valley.
“When I moved to SLO County, I realized that I would be moving quite a distance from my family, but my focus was on raising our young family,” Gong said in the release. “But now that they are grown up, my focus has shifted to my elderly parents.”
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.
Ahead of Gong’s departure, the Clerk-Recorder’s Office is currently in “a good spot,” especially with the presence of two deputy directors, he said.
San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong looks over trays filled with ballots on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018. Gong is in the process of preparing for the November 2020 election, which will rely heavily on mail-in voting. David Middlecamp [email protected]
“We are at full capacity, staff-wise,” Gong said in the release. “I know I am leaving the office in great hands with equally committed and dedicated staff through the transition.”
He said 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 being able to serve more than 700,000 registered voters in his new job and see his family more often were the primary motivations for his move, Gong said.
“I am truly grateful to San Luis Obispo County for providing me the opportunity to serve the community and hone my craft in elections and clerk-recorder functions,” Gong said in the release. “I will carry fond memories of spending almost a third of my life here.”
SLO County leaders react to Gong’s departure
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.
San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Tommy Gong dismantles a portable voting station Wednesday in the lobby of the county offices. Valid ballots are still arriving by mail, and the County Clerk-Recorder’s office is working to process them. David Middlecamp [email protected]
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.
