SLO County sends out voter guide — with key thing missing. ‘We regret the omission’
San Luis Obispo County sent out a voter information guide that failed to include one political party’s endorsements after “an administrative error” occurred, the county Clerk-Recorder’s Office said in a social media post Monday.
The guides, which were sent to registered voters earlier this month, include official endorsements from various political parties.
However, the American Independent Party’s endorsed candidates were accidentally left out of the printed guide, according to Erin Clausen, the public information officer for the Clerk-Recorder’s Office.
Clausen said the mistake occurred after a staffer forgot to send an email attachment with the American Independent Party’s endorsements.
“Because of that, it was not in the folder from which we pulled the endorsement lists when creating the county guide,” she told The Tribune.
In order to be included in county voter guides, party chairs from qualified political parties must send their official candidate endorsements to county elections offices at least 83 days before an election, according to California election law. The endorsement lists are issued from state party leaders, not local central committees, Clausen said.
Once the voter guide error was identified, SLO County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano worked with American Independent Party state chairman Victor Marani to find a solution, Clausen said via email.
The Clerk-Recorder’s Office will send out a postcard with the American Independent Party’s candidate endorsements by Friday. It also shared all qualified political party endorsements on its social media pages and website.
Clausen said the cost of the postcards will be covered by funds leftover from the November special election.
“While we regret the omission of the AI party’s endorsements, we worked quickly and cooperatively with the party chair to remedy the situation in a manner that he was comfortable with,” she told The Tribune.
This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 10:26 AM.
