Elections chief placed on paid leave
Rebecca Spencer's lawyer calls the move by supervisors `retaliatory and political'
Riverside County’s elections chief has been placed on paid administrative leave with less than six months to go until California’s 2024 primary.
News of Registrar of Voters Rebecca Spencer’s leave surfaced after the Board of Supervisors met behind closed doors Tuesday to discuss her job performance.
County spokesperson Yaoska Machado confirmed Wednesday that Spencer was on leave.
Juan Perez, the county’s chief operating officer, “will work closely with the department’s leadership team and dedicated staff to continue to prepare for upcoming elections and to ensure the delivery of services for the communities we serve,” Machado said via email.
Machado called the leave a personnel matter and said no additional information would be available until after the supervisors’ next meeting.
Spencer’s lawyer, Sanford Kassel, said Wednesday that she was placed on leave after that evaluation “for no stated reason.”
“Rebecca Spencer, as registrar of voters, has been a tremendous asset to the county for over 24 years and has worked relentlessly in what is supposed to be a totally nonpartisan position,” Kassel said Wednesday.
The county’s move is “totally retaliatory and political in nature,” Kassel said.
Spencer was retaliated against for “reporting inappropriate and unlawful activity within the county,” he said.
Kassel declined to elaborate on what activity Spencer reported, but in the past, she has accused Riverside County’s district attorney and an elected county supervisor of interfering with her duties.
The duration of Spencer’s leave was not immediately clear.
The registrar is responsible for maintaining voter rolls and overseeing elections in the nation’s 10th largest county with more than 1.3million registered voters. The registrar’s office has a $14.3 million budget.
Spencer started as an intern