San Luis Obispo, CA (KB) - Some people search for election fraud so obsessively that they eventually find it in the mirror. Republican Gaea Powell, a Moms for Liberty activist, former mayoral candidate and loyal Trump supporter, has provided the proof that election fraud really does exist. Just not where she thought it did. For years, she warned about fraud at the ballot box. Now we know who was busiest at it. Earlier this year, she ran in California for San Luis Obispo County clerk-recorder, the very office that oversees election records. Last week, a jury at Superior Court in San Luis Obispo found her guilty on all 9 counts of election fraud. The trial was held in Department 5 before Judge Timothy S. Covello. She faces up to 8 years in prison, with sentencing set for October 19. A candidate for an elections office, convicted over election matters, has a certain logic to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The charges go back to her campaigns for mayor of Arroyo Grande in 2022 and 2024. Back then, Powell made the \u201cintegrity of local elections\u201d the centerpiece of her campaign and borrowed Trump\u2019s claims about stolen votes to do it. No suspicion about someone else\u2019s ballots was too far-fetched for her. While preaching the purity of the ballot box, she lied straight to local officials. Under oath, and under penalty of perjury, she swore that she lived within the city limits of Arroyo Grande, as the office required. She did not live there. She had lied about her residence and registered unlawfully. Then came fraudulent voting. Three ways to tamper with an election, and she took every one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was not exactly careful with the truth when it came to money either. On June 30, 2022, she declared that she did not intend to raise or spend more than $2,000. Then she went right ahead and spent more, on campaign mailers, and told no one. The guardian of clean elections quietly kept a second set of books. Nine guilty verdicts, and Powell still admits nothing. \u201cI respect the jury\u2019s role. But I am deeply disappointed by today\u2019s verdict,\u201d she said, and she continues to insist: \u201cI did not knowingly deceive anyone and did not act with fraudulent intent.\u201d An entire jury saw it differently. The movement that casts itself as the guardian of law and order put forward a candidate who was convicted on 9 counts. The loudest cry of thief comes remarkably often from the one with full pockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has announced an appeal and says she will pursue every available legal remedy. \u201cI may have lost this battle. But this is not the end of the legal fight,\u201d Powell said. \u201cAnother chapter is only beginning.\u201d You can already guess what it will be about. You can turn the lie into a campaign platform, but the truth still gets a vote in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n