Top row: Adrian Clark, Jay Paz, Ash Bon-Reinhardt, Rocio Banda, Michelle Ascencion, Emily Conde and Jasmine Williams
Bottom row: Nathalia Raygoza, Kevin Munoz, Elliana Escalera and Carol Pelletier
Photo by Dani Ramirez
Written by Evan Grahn
Earlier this month, at the April 8 Senate, CI’s student government provided a direct look at the administration behind county governance by hosting Ventura County, CA’s elected Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters, Michelle Ascencion. For Ascencion, such visits to campus are a familiar occurrence, being a fellow student at CI in the Master of Public Administration program.
As the County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters, Ascension oversees the management of county filings, including property documents from before the county’s founding, vital records like birth, death and marriage records, and fictitious business names for businesses operating under a name other than what it is incorporated as. The department, however, is most prominently known for administering elections and maintaining voter registration.
A strong advocate for local government, Ascension’s career in public service began almost twenty years ago in the city of Port Hueneme, CA. Eventually working for the Ventura Regional Sanitation District, she was first elected as the city clerk of Oxnard, CA, in 2016. In 2021, she transitioned into working at the county level at the recommendation of her retiring predecessor, former Clerk-Recorder & Registrar Mark Lunn. Following a successful 2022 primary election, Ascension became the first woman and the first person of color to be elected to her office in the County’s one-hundred and fifty-year history.
During the Senate meeting, Ascension detailed what voting looks like in Ventura County, CA, under the California Voter’s Choice Act and its universal mail voting, allowing every registered voter to receive a vote by mail ballot automatically. She emphasized the importance of depositing ballots before 8 p.m, recalling times when voters had to be turned away after the cut-off time. Throughout the two-week voting period, there are forty countywide drop boxes to ensure voters have accessibility if they wish to vote in-person; one of such drop boxes is located outside the CI police station, ensuring an easy opportunity for those on campus to vote in the upcoming primary election.
Addressing concerns raised about election security, Ascension explained that the verification processes for both mail-in ballots, with signatures being verified by both human workers and machines against filings from past registrations and the Department of Motor Vehicles. She noted that the federal emphasis on non-citizen voting is a rare occurrence and that such efforts to introduce new regulation are similar to historical efforts to restrict voting: “In this country, and I need to say it, there have been barriers that have been put up to prevent people from voting. Literacy tests, poll taxes, grandfather clauses, all kinds of things that would have kept many people in this room from being able to participate. And the state of California has removed those barriers.” Such restrictions being potentially damning for Ventura County, CA, where Ascension cites, “our participation rarely goes above 80%.”
When asked by The CI View about what preparations her office is making for the potential approval of the federal SAVE Act, Ascension expressed apprehension but clarified the chain of command. Because the Constitution delegates election responsibilities to the states, any revisions to federal mandates would first be directed through the California Secretary of State. While she admitted that such re-registration requirements would be an “administrative nightmare,” she affirmed that there would nonetheless be sufficient direction from the state.
Ascension’s visit concluded with a call for student involvement and a warning about election misinformation. She advised students to utilize official resources like the Ventura County Clerk-Recorder website or the California Secretary of State’s portal. With the county needing to hire hundreds of election workers for the upcoming election cycle, she highly encouraged CI students to get involved, work at vote centers, and serve their communities.
