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With just 26 days before Election Day, Tiffany Hunt Nielsen and Juan Pablo Cervantes squared off under the bright lights of the KEET TV studio on Wednesday for a candidate forum hosted and moderated by the League of Women Voters of Humboldt County.

The two candidates find themselves locked in an occasionally testy runoff election for the position of Humboldt County Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters, and at the outset of last night’s proceedings moderator Nancy Kay outlined what’s at stake.

The four-year term of office comes with an annual salary of $150,592, plus bennies, and the job can broadly be divided into two categories. The clerk-recorder’s role involves registering all births, deaths and marriages within the county along with filing various authorized documents and maps. The registrar of voters, meanwhile, is tasked with ensuring that all eligible residents have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote and conducting elections in a fair, accurate and efficient manner.

Addressing their qualifications, Hunt Nielsen said she has 20 years of experience working with recorded documents, including the past three and a half in the clerk-recorder’s office. 

“I have also worked in the elections office during a few of the elections,” she said. “I was a liaison in the call center for poll workers to verify voter registration status and party information, and I have worked in the Hart voting system, adjudicating ballots to verify voter intent.”

Cervantes said he has administrative experience in both offices, helping the clerk-recorder’s office with board items and personnel issues while serving as the county’s election manager. 

“I feel like I bring a strong skill set in that I can make the office more efficient and accessible for voters and residents,” he said.

Asked how best to balance the dual roles, Cervantes said the key is viewing them as one office by “bringing the teams together [and] ensuring that there’s cross training available for both sides. But ultimately,” he added, “I think it’s the creation of solid processes. Developing policies that are consistent and well-crafted going forward is the way that both offices get balanced.”

Hunt Nielsen said the two offices are very different and that being visible and available for open communication is important. 

The two candidates expressed confidence in local elections management, with both saying they believe election fraud is not an issue here in Humboldt County. But when asked about the importance of this election, Cervantes invoked larger cultural matters — namely, the perception that local election officials have corrupted the integrity of the democratic process.

“[A]cross this we’re seeing an attempt to not just disenfranchise voters but to cause doubt in the process … ,” he said. “The institution seems to be under attack, and it’s critical to make sure that we elect officials and representatives that will uphold this process and govern without interference from outside parties.”

Hunt Nielsen agreed that voter turnout has been reduced by doubts about election integrity, and she again emphasized the importance of open communication as well as participation.

“When your name is on the ballot you have a lot of friends and family that invest in your campaign, and I’ve learned that through this election,” she said. “And I think that that helps grow the passion for voting.”

The candidates were asked to list their endorsements. Cervantes said the one that makes him feel most confident in his own candidacy is that of former Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Carolyn Crnich, who he described as a person who “understands the complexities and difficulties of overseeing both offices.”

He also listed State Assemblymember Jim Wood, State Senator Mike McGuire, the Humboldt and Del Norte County Central Labor Council and AFSCME Local 1684 (the union that represents most county employees).

Hunt Nielsen said she has “many endorsements from those who [I] have worked with and served over the years, [including] election leaders and the hard-working men and women who live and work in our community and help make this county great.” She also listed the endorsements of the Humboldt Association of Realtors and the local survey association. 

As for their respective educational backgrounds, Hunt Nielsen said she has hands-on experience working with records and title searches as well as a land surveying certificate she used in the field, assisting a surveyor for two and a half years.

Cervantes said he has his bachelor’s degree from Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt) and has taken graduate-level coursework for a master’s in public administration. “Beyond that, I’ve attended the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center [for] what they call Battlestaff Bootcamp for addressing emergencies during elections,” he said.

Later in the forum, Cervantes said he’d like to enable more voter outreach beyond Eureka’s city limits, noting that San Bernardino County employs a mobile outreach van to provide clerk-recorder and registrar services throughout the county.

“Beyond that, I’d like to see more stakeholder engagement, whether it’s with our local tribal members [or] different stakeholders in the community, like the Association of Realtors. I’d like to see our office engage more with people,” he said.

Hunt Nielsen echoed that sentiment, saying she’d like to open up communication. “My biggest vision for the recorder’s office is to let everyone know that we are available on our website,” she said. “We have our documents available there. We get phone calls about that every day.” She added that she’d like to improve the efficiency of ballot counting.

The candidates gave conflicting answers about department funding. Hunt Nielsen said she believes the clerk-recorder’s office brings in money that helps the elections office, saying, “that’s one of the reasons that the offices are together, so that we can assist them fiscally.”

Cervantes sought to correct that, saying the elections office is funded via the county’s general fund, like most county offices. “One department isn’t necessarily funding the other,” he said.

Hunt Nielsen said she does not have experience advocating for more resources while Cervantes said he’s done so at HSU and Access Humboldt and has also pursued grants with other organizations.

“I’m willing and I have the skill set to make sure that we get our fair share of state dollars and I’m looking forward to doing that kind of work,” he said.

Both candidates spoke to the importance of improving accessibility for marginalized groups. Cervantes said that as the child of immigrants, he often served as a translator and interface between his parents and the government. “And as I’ve done this work, one of the important things I take into it is that I’d like for our office to treat people like I want my mom to be treated,” he said. “I think having that greater customer service, having that greater care and treating people like humans rather than processes is key.”

Hunt Nielsen said the recorder’s office has improved accessibility during the COVID pandemic, making a variety of documents available online. She added that staff in the office, which is on the fifth floor of the county courthouse, have gone downstairs to help people with accessibility issues. 

In his closing statement, Cervantes said he looks forward to making the office more accessible and building on the foundation of the two previous people to hold the position. 

“Customer service is a thing that we talk about a lot, but we can’t just pay lip service to it,” he said. “We need to talk about what it means to give good customer service, and the core component of that is respect — respecting your time, respecting your part in the process and ensuring that whether you’re a business person or a community member, when you come into our office you get what you need in a timely fashion.”

In her closing statement, Hunt Nielsen went after her opponent, saying he only became the county’s election manager after he began his campaign. “All of [his] other experience is as a seasonal poll worker, primarily in another county,” she said. “My 20 years of experience with recorded documents often included 50 to 60 hours a week of hands-on, professional and employee experience under the tutelage of veteran professionals with high standards — all in Humboldt County.”

You can watch the entire forum below.