While many may be rightfully shocked by the mendacity of Donald Trump and his gaggle of tin-foil-hat-society quack attorneys making baseless claims of massive voter fraud in an effort to overturn a democratic election in his favor, I must admit, I am not. One could argue, the scream-voter-fraud-without-veracity playbook was written right here in Santa Barbara.
Back in 2008, now retired 3rd District county supervisor Doreen Farr won a close election to the Board of Supervisors, which was immediately contested by her opponent, Steve Pappas. Pappas, relying on his own set of feel-facts and enablers, felt he must have performed better among a third of the district’s voters, the young residents of Isla Vista and UCSB. He refused to accept the fact that he lost their vote by 90 percent in some precincts, which propelled Doreen to victory. He also refused to accept that voter turnout was record-breakingly high, especially among young voters, driven by a desire for generational change in a sharp rebuke to an outgoing presidential administration that was woefully unpopular with an emerging new American electorate. Sound familiar?
Not only did he never concede (to this day, seriously) to supervisor Farr, but he lawyered up and challenged his loss up the chain of multiple courts, losing each time. He had the temerity to ask a judge to toss out 9,700 student votes, and then simply declare him the victor. He made vague allegations that some students were improperly registered to vote so an entire community’s votes should entirely be wiped out — establishing a key strategy, if you don’t like the votes that are counted, try to change whose get tallied after-the-fact. Sound familiar?