Though his name does not appear on the ballots, there is another candidate for Mendocino County sheriff in the June 7 Primary Election: former MCSO Deputy Trent James.
Katrina Bartolomie, Mendocino County registrar of voters, said James qualified as a write-in candidate by collecting signatures of support from at least 40 registered voters just before the deadline last week, and was sworn in Monday, May 23, in her office.
“And he’s kicking himself for not doing it sooner,” said Bartolomie, explaining that since all 54,000 ballots for the June 7, 2022, primary election had already been printed and mailed to voters by that time, there was no way to add James’ name.
And by the end of that week, she said, about 10 percent of those ballots, or 5,000, had already been returned to her office, and she guessed that when James was sworn in, at least 3,000 had already been returned.
“And by the time a ballot reaches our office, it is ours,” she said, referring to the fact that people cannot write in James for sheriff after they’ve already mailed or dropped off their ballot.
For those who have not yet filled out their ballot, she said anyone who wants to vote for James, 34, a 2005 Ukiah High graduate who served for years as a resident MCSO deputy in Covelo and briefly as an officer with the Willits Police Department, should write in Trent James under Matthew C. Kendall in the sheriff-coroner box.
“And it would be best if they fill in the box next to the dotted line, but they don’t have to,” she said, adding that people also don’t have to get his name exactly right, either. “They can write T. James, or just Trent. As long as we know their intent, we can tally that vote for the write-in candidate.”
Reached Tuesday morning after collecting the mail, Bartolomie said that about 5,811 ballots had been returned to her office. When asked how many ballots included a vote for James on them, she said “that cannot be disclosed until 8 p.m. on Election Day.”
When asked how many other write-in candidates she had sworn in, Bartolomie said James was the first she could recall for a county-wide seat “in a very long time.”
In a video posted to his YouTube channel, “Confessions of an Ex-Cop,” James said after graduating from Ukiah High in 2005, he moved to Santa Rosa and attended Sonoma State University. After graduating with a degree in criminal justice, he decided to go into law enforcement and “put myself through the Santa Rosa Police Academy.” While still in the academy, James said he was hired by the Mendocino County Probation Department, where he worked for “a short time” before becoming a patrol deputy with the MCSO.
James said he worked for the MCSO for six years, “the vast majority of which was in Covelo,” where he lived and worked as a resident deputy, putting his “heart and soul into a job I loved.” However, James said he became very frustrated and disheartened by the “administration” of the MCSO and left to join the Willits Police Department, where a friend and fellow former MCSO deputy worked.
Four months after joining the WPD with his dog “Hank,” James said he became frustrated with that agency, as well, and tried to return to his old job in Covelo, applying again at the MCSO. When that did not work out (James says he was not hired back; the MCSO says James withdrew his application), James said soon afterward he was fired from the WPD and he moved to Florida with his girlfriend.
James said he has since returned to California and his primary residence is in Regina Heights, but he also has a secondary residence in Texas.
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2022-05-31 23:42:09Z
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