Jimmy Paulding’s election victory over Lynn Compton confirmed after recount found ‘zero discrepancies’

By Blake Ashley-Frino Gerl of Atascadero News

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY — Jimmy Paulding can officially say he has won the District 4 San Luis Obispo County Supervisor seat, beating incumbent Lynn Compton, after the District 4 vote recount has been concluded.

The manual recount of the ballots for the June 7 Statewide Direct Primary Election for the office of San Luis Obispo County District 4 Supervisor has officially concluded, according to the press release from the San Luis Obispo County Office of the Clerk-Recorder, Elaina Cano. District 4 covers Nipomo, Arroyo Grande, Huasna, Edna Valley, Santa Margarita Lake, and the Carrizo Plain.

Under the supervision of the election official, a manual recount of the ballots was conducted at the request of Paso Robles resident Darcia Stebbens. According to reports, Stebbens’ request was filed on behalf of Compton, who finished 639 votes behind Paulding in the final official election results, which were posted by the county on June 7. Under California elections code, the person requesting a recount has to pay for it.

The recount process began on July 19 and was conducted publicly as required by law, with four to six observers each day of the recount from 9 a.m. to approximately 4:15 p.m. After 18 days, there were “zero discrepancies between the manual recount and the certified results,” according to Cano. 

There were 23 precincts and five mail ballot precincts, which had three separate counting groups, including polls, provisionals, and vote-by-mail ballots that were manually tallied. 

In the end, each of the totals for the precincts and county groups, matched exactly to what the certified results depicted. Both the final recount and certified results were Paulding with 10,769 (52 percent of the vote) and Compton with 10,130 (48 percent).