2 SLO County candidates under investigation for election fraud, clerk-recorder confirmed
Two candidates running for office in San Luis Obispo County are under investigation for alleged election fraud, Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano confirmed when asked by The Tribune.
The District Attorney’s Office is investigating whether Arroyo Grande City Council mayoral candidate Gaea Powell and Paso Robles school board candidate Hunter M. Breese actually live at the residences they listed as their home addresses when they filed for candidacy, Cano told The Tribune.
Although in Powell’s case, Powell said it doesn’t matter.
“I know that there is an open investigation for both Hunter and Gaea,” Cano said.
Making a false declaration of candidacy is a felony crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and/or up to three years in jail or prison. Doing so under penalty of perjury can carry up to four years in state prison.
The new investigations come after the DA’s Office recently filed felony charges in another recent case of suspected election-related fraud.
Michelle Morrow — a former candidate for the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors who allegedly registered under a false address — was charged on Sept. 11 with four felony counts: voter registration fraud, filing a false declaration of candidacy, fraudulent voting and perjury by declaration.
Morrow’s arraignment is scheduled for Thursday in Department 3. Sentencing for a conviction of these crimes may include probation, County Jail confinement, or confinement in state prison, according to the DA’s Office.
The DA’s Office would not confirm anything about the new allegations when contacted by The Tribune.
Where does Gaea Powell live?
Powell registered to run in the Arroyo Grande mayoral race using the address of a condominium on James Way even though she admitted she does not live there. Instead, she told The Tribune, she lives in a house on Heritage Lane that is outside the city limits.
Powell said she rents at both residences, and she addressed the question at an Arroyo Grande election forum on Sept. 19.
“I moved into the city limits because I wanted to run for mayor, but I’ve lived — I have another property that’s outside of it in an unincorporated area, so I have two properties,” Powell said at the forum. “So it’s a little bit misleading,” she said in reference to the claims about her residency status.
Powell told The Tribune that she does not split her time between the residences and due to the health challenges of her elderly dogs and landlord on Heritage Lane, has “been anchored to that property” and lives there full time.
“Once both of those situations resolve, most likely, within months to a year, I will be free to stay where I wish,” she wrote in a text message to The Tribune. “If timing works out, we will then most likely rent the entire condo on James Way, or maybe purchase it.”
Powell said she spent time at the condo during her first campaign for mayor in 2022 but did not live there full time.
According to voter registration data obtained by The Tribune, Powell is registered to vote at the condo on James Way — but so is her boss at Pathways To Health, David Marquis.
Marquis is the registered owner of the home, and the property’s taxes are billed to him at a mailing address in San Clemente, according to county public records, the Regrid Property App and the property’s deed obtained by the Tribune, but said he rents to Powell.
“Gaea Powell has been renting a room from me in Arroyo Grande for well over two years,” Marquis told The Tribune. “It is a long-term arrangement.”
Powell’s husband is not registered to vote at the James Way address, according to the data.
The Tribune visited Marquis’ home, but no one was there at the time.
“Though I haven’t been to the condo for a while, I have honored my rental agreement to the owner,” Powell said.
Even though she doesn’t live there, Powell shared with The Tribune an email exchange between her and the city that she said “proves I have done nothing illegal to the best of my knowledge.”
Powell said she sought and received confirmation from the city on multiple occasions that there are no rules in the City’s Municipal Code requiring candidates with multiple residences to reside at their address inside the city limits for a certain amount of time in order to file candidacy papers and run for office.
“There are currently no residency restrictions related to time spent at one residence within the city limits versus at another outside city limits,” Arroyo Grande legislative and information services director and city clerk Jessica Matson told Powell in the July 2023 email exchange, specifically on the question about where someone can live as they launch their candidacy.
“A candidate does need to be a registered voter within the city limits,” Matson also wrote to Powell, pursuant to section 201 of the California Elections Code.
Powell said Matson confirmed the same information to her again verbally in July.
Arroyo Grande’s municipal elections code specifies for the election of council members that “any candidate for City Council must reside in, and be a registered voter in, the district in which he or she seeks election at the time nomination papers are issued,” but does not state the same rule for mayoral elections.
Matson confirmed this information in emails to The Tribune but added the residency rules change once the person takes office and that elected officials are “required to reside within the city limits of Arroyo Grande during the term of office,” pursuant to section 36502 of the California Government Code.
“If elected, I will ask the City clerk again about any restrictions or requirements, as I did before,” Powell told The Tribune. “If there are requirements, I will stay at the condo as per those requirements.”
Arroyo Grande City Manger Matthew Downing told The Tribune in an email that the city is in contact and cooperating with the DA’s Office in compliance with the elections code and declined to comment further.
For her part, Powell said, “I welcome the complaint-driven investigation and look forward to learning the results.”
Powell is challenging incumbent Arroyo Grande Mayor Caren Ray Russom, who said she wants the question of who becomes Arroyo Grande’s next mayor left up to the voters.
“I am concerned that the integrity of city staff is being called into question by someone who may have knowingly violated commonly understood election rules — I want to believe that this isn’t true,” Russom told The Tribune. “This isn’t staff’s fault. This is a personal accountability issue. The voters vet the candidate, not staff.”
“The voters deserve honesty from their public officials as well as those seeking public office,” Russom said. “I am looking forward to election day. I have worked very, very hard to educate the voters, and I want this to be a clean and fair election so that the voters can legitimately choose who they want as their mayor.”
“I don’t want my opponent disqualified,” Russom said. “I want the voters, and only the voters, to decide who will be their next mayor.”
What about Hunter Breese?
Breese, a 19-year-old recent graduate of Paso Robles High School, is running for a seat on the Paso Robles Unified School District board in Trustee Area 3.
According to an anonymous tip from the public Instagram account @slo.spotlight.805, Breese also allegedly does not live where he is registered to run.
Breese is registered at a home on Red Cloud Road in Trustee Area 3. That property is listed on the Federal Election Commission’s online donation records for the Republican Party as belonging to Sharon Johnson as of June.
Breese originally registered to vote in 2022. On July 23, 2024, he changed his registration to the Red Cloud Road location, according to the county voter registration data obtained by The Tribune. The exact reason listed on the data is “Re-registration due to address change.”
The Tribune visited the residence on Red Cloud Road. A woman answered the door but did not identify herself as Johnson and declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Breese’s family’s home is on White Tail Place in Paso Robles, which is just inside of the boundaries of Trustee Area 5. It is unclear if Breese lives there with his parents, at the address under which he is registered on Red Cloud Road or at another address entirely.
The Tribune also visited the home on White Tail Place but did not a receive response from Breese’s family.
Johnson is pictured on Facebook with current sitting Paso Robles school board member Kenny Enney, who has posted in support of Breese’s campaign on Facebook.
Breese, Johnson and Enney did not immediately respond to The Tribune’s requests for comment.
County elections official says the DA is investigating the claims
As for the DA’s investigation, Cano said the office requested Breese and Powell’s candidate registration filings from the County Clerk-Recorder’s Office — which is how she knows they are under investigation.
In response to The Tribune’s request to corroborate Cano’s claim, the DA’s Office said in an email that it “will not disclose whether that is factual or not because any record of a complaint made to the District Attorney’s Office is not subject to public disclosure.”
According to a specific subdivision rule of the California Government Code, state or local law enforcement agencies are not required to disclose records of complaints or investigations being conducted by the agency to the public.
“The San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office takes all complaints seriously, and when received, all election-related complaints are referred to the proper division of this office for consideration,” the DA’s Office told The Tribune in an email. “The office does not provide status updates regarding complaints received, nor do we confirm or deny to a third party the receipt of a complaint or the existence of an investigation, unless and until a criminal case is filed in court.”
“The District Attorney’s Office is a law enforcement agency within the meaning of the statutory provision, and any such record is exempt from disclosure,” the DA’s Office said.
This story was originally published October 9, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
