San Luis Obispo Republicans call for election recount after Maricopa County voter audit

The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to create a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol insurrection on January 6. Just 35 Republicans joined Democrats in the vote, despite a lack of support from Republican Congressional leaders. It’s more proof that Republicans think the best way to win back control of Congress next year is to leave the events of January 6 behind.

But locally, the “big lie” that fueled the insurrection — that Trump actually won the November election — continues to fester. After Arizona Republican lawmakers pushed for an audit of ballots in Maricopa County, a similar move is now supported in San Luis Obispo County, California. Earlier this month, a Board of Supervisors meeting was overrun by nearly 100 people who questioned election results and demanded a forensic audit.

Originally, the meeting was dedicated to discussing the future of voting in the county, according to Lindsey Holden, a staff writer for the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

“There were just hours and hours of comments from people who had left messages, voicing concerns that were largely rooted in misinformation about the 2020 election,” she tells KCRW.

Attendees also took the chance to attack Tommy Gong, the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder. One commenter accused him of being a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

While listening to the commenter calls, Holden says she was struck by the pronunciation and the way some people spoke. That included their pronunciation of “SLO” (the abbreviation for San Luis Obispo) and pronouncing “Luis” as “Louis.”

“They didn't say what region of our county they're from or anything like that. ... It definitely kind of gave us pause.”