The Riverside County (RivCo) Board of Supervisors are in a game of “would you rather.” In this game, players have to choose between equally distasteful choices. Like, would you rather eat a cricket or a banana slug? By the way, that is a choice that we would be making soon if Klaus Shwab of the World Economic Forum (and their minions) have their way with the Great Reset. But, I digress. RivCo is now in a real life game: Would you rather side with questionable Registrar of Voters, or a questionable election printing service (Runbeck)?
The RivCo Registrar of Voters, Rebecca Spencer, was put on leave on September 12, 2023, with no reason given. However, after the most recent Board of Supervisors meeting, it was revealed that the issue had to do with Spencer running up costs, due to mismanagement, with the contracted Runbeck election services.
Desert Truth reported back in June of this year that RivCo had a contract with Runbeck for ballot printing (and mailing) services since 2018. We also reported that the original contract was for $1.5 million a year, but RivCo had paid a total of $11.69 million to Runbeck, to date. That article, and others, were forwarded to RivCo board of Supervisors and to Rebecca Spencer by a reader (You know who you are and you rock!), and we had a meeting scheduled with Spencer for September 21st. Yes, it took that long to set up. Obviously, the meeting did not take place.
We learn more of the suspension from a report by the Press Enterprise (PE). The PE reported on September 28, that Spencer’s suspension arose from Runbeck snitching on her to the RivCo board. Turns out, Spencer and Runbeck have a running feud.
Choose Your Fighter: Spencer vs. Runbeck
According to PE, Runbeck sent a letter to RivCo Board of Supervisors on September 21, alleging that Spencer “’routinely mismanaged many election processes’ that drove up costs and caused delays.” Spencer, on the other hand, “blamed Runbeck for her failures and when an independent audit vindicated the company, she retaliated by working to deny Runbeck a future contract for elections services.”
Runbeck alleges that “[t]hroughout 2022, Spencer “attempted to use Runbeck as a shield to cover up certain mistakes that she had caused, [and] misrepresented the facts of these situations” to county Chief Operating Officer Juan Perez. Runbeck also alleges “that there were other incidents prior to 2022 and that Spencer was willing “to go to any length to defend herself, no matter what she had to do to accomplish her goal.”
More from the PE on the Spencer vs. Runbeck feud:
Spencer’s office “has had multiple performance issues with Runbeck Election Services,” Kassel said in a written statement. In March 2020, Runbeck incorrectly printed provisional ballot envelopes, resulting in Spencer’s staff having to print and re-label 150,000 envelopes, Kassel said.
In written responses to Kassel’s allegations, Runbeck said “there was indeed an error” in the issuing of provisional ballot envelopes.
Runbeck “offered the Registrar multiple options for resolving the situation, reprinted thousands of envelopes and provided an invoice credit, Runbeck said, adding that “an incident of this nature has not happened since.”
Spencer also blames Runbeck for mailing ballots too late to Eastvale and Cathedral City voters in 2021. Despite being given a heads up it may need to rush 10,000 ballots, Runbeck “did not mail the ballots until the Monday before Election Day from Phoenix” and the ballots arrived too late, Kassel said.
Spencer’s office “did not provide the necessary data for this mailing of 11,502 ballots until the Thursday afternoon before the election,” Runbeck stated in its response to Kassel, adding that counties need to provide this data by the Wednesday before an election.
Press Enterprise
Runbeck further accuses Spencer of retaliating against Runbeck for an audit they participated in:
Know Your Fighter
We have covered Spencer’s horrid election security in “Riverside County Continues to Fail at Election Security.“ A report on the RivCo Election Administration Plan can be found in “Riverside County Final Election Administration Plan and You“. Neither are complimentary to Spencer or RivCo election security.
Spencer, began her stint at the Registrars office in 1999 as a student intern, according to a 2014 report. Which means, that Spencer was a card carrying member of the SEIU (county workers union) her entire professional career. Spencer was appointed to lead the Registrars office in 2014. On a side note, each election the County board of Supervisors approves regular SEIU County workers to work the elections.
Coincidentally, the Registrar of Voters from Santa Cruz, Gail Pellerin, had a similar career path. Pellerin went on to the California Assembly and authored the atrocious AB 969 to ban in-person paper ballot voting and hand counts. More from our X thread:
Runbeck of course, has many issues, including being a center of controversy in Maricopa County Arizona, in both the 2020 and the 2022 election fiascoes, as detailed in the previously provided links.
Demand Different Fighters
When faced with two distasteful choices, choose neither. No, don’t sit out, do the opposite, demand a change of the status quo. According to the PE, the Runbeck contract is to be discussed by the board in their October 3 meeting. There isn’t much time, but Board of Supervisors contact can be found here.
If the allegations Runbeck makes against Spencer prove out, she should be gone, no question. But, that does not mean RivCo must approve Runbeck. Don’t use a lack of time before the 2024 election as a scapegoat to fall back into the status quo! Do your homework and choose from another bidder. If and when, Spencer is replaced, RivCo should appoint an independent Registrar, not another lifetime extreme-left SEIU union member.
RivCo must strive to protect our elections now. If that means undoing Spencer’s past actions and commitments, so be it. The alternative is that we may all be making the choice between the cricket and the slug soon.