San Joaquin County supervisor's scheduled appearance at Lodi event draws criticism

A San Joaquin County supervisor's scheduled appearance at a Lodi event has drawn criticism and ire from some of his constituents.

On Friday, District 4 Supervisor Steve Ding — who represents Thornton, Woodbridge, Lodi, Lockeford, Linden, and a portion of Stockton — is set to speak at San Joaquin Freedom Fest, an event hosted by San Joaquin Conservatives. It will be held at Hutchins Street Square and feature a slew of Republican faces, including keynote speaker Kari Lake.

Lake made national headlines last year when she lost Arizona's governor race to Democrat Katie Hobbs and refused to concede. After the candidate's failure, she claimed that she was robbed of the victory and filed a lawsuit in December 2022, in which she asked Arizona courts to set aside her electoral loss to Hobbs and declare her the winner instead.

Her lawsuit was rejected.

Lake has also made claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. A federal grand jury indicted Trump on Tuesday for conspiring to steal the 2020 election from President Joe Biden, including actions that led to the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, which the prosecutor described as "an unprecedented assault" on democracy.

He was in court Thursday and pleaded not guilty to his third indictment.

Also scheduled to attend San Joaquin Freedom Fest are Douglas Frank, a former Ohio teacher who left his job in the classroom to give speeches alleging voter fraud in California and across the country, and Shasta County Supervisor Kevin Crye, who is currently facing a recall fight.

This week, a petition has circulated urging Ding to refrain from speaking at the event. It has garnered nearly 200 signatures as of Thursday.

"(Ding's) presence at this event is bad enough, but speaking at it helps further the narrative that our voting system is untrustworthy," the petition reads. "Events such as these sow doubt in the electoral process, at best, and cause real-world harm to electoral volunteers and officials."

A group of residents have also planned a 4:30 p.m. protest Friday at Hutchins Street Square.

"San Joaquin County has plenty of unfinished work about homelessness, the mental health and drug crises, affordable housing, and more," the petition reads. "What we don't need is to stoke the flame of election deniers, which is why our elected supervisor should have nothing to do with this event."

Ding told The Record there are issues with the voting process in San Joaquin County, recalling blurry vote-by-mail barcodes that delayed results in the 2022 primary election. The defects occurred when vote-by-mail ballots were printed in a new format for the first time in the election cycle due to a change in the election code, Olivia Hale, San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters, told The Record in June 2022.

Election workers spent weeks manually duplicating rejected ballots due to the blurry barcodes.

"Election results were dragged out for over a month, so, given everything going on, the (board of supervisors) formed an elections commission and a review process to try to restore some integrity to our election process," Ding said. "Perception is reality, and when people perceive that there's something fishy going on with the elections, that's the reality, so we want to fix that."

Ding, a Republican, said he was invited to attend San Joaquin Freedom Fest because he is the head of the Election Advisory Committee.

"I was asked to speak about my favorite subject, the Australian ballot," he said. "The Australian ballot is what our election system is based on, and it basically ensures an individual's ability to vote in secrecy. It doesn't offer him the opportunity. It guarantees it."

Ding will also update the board of supervisors' "efforts to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised, the elections are secure, and individual rights are protected."

The District 4 representative said he thinks discussion and opposing views are healthy and welcomes respectful discourse with those who may disagree with him.

"I think you come out with a better product at the end of the day when there's more than one side to a debate," Ding said before adding that he was unaware of Lake's failure in Arizona.

"I knew there was controversy in Arizona, I knew they were claiming irregularities, but I never actually heard the story," he said. "But you've got an individual that's in the national spotlight coming to Lodi. Quite frankly, I think it's good for the economy."

Ria Jones, president of San Joaquin Conservatives and one of the event's sponsors, said the event is not about politics but spreading awareness.

"It's about election transparency and election integrity. This is not a political event. It's been made political by unhappy people, but they have no idea that the subject of the night is election integrity," Jones said. "We're not looking back. We don't want to overturn an election, we're not contesting an election, and we're not mad about an election. None of that is the truth."

Jones said the group became concerned about election fraud in San Joaquin County after the February arrest of former Lodi city Councilman Shakir Khan. The election-related claims brought against Khan included registering people to vote who were not entitled to registration and "subscription of a fictitious name" to a nomination petition, among other charges.

All alleged crimes occurred between January and November 2020, according to the complaint against Khan.

"We all raised our eyebrows. How did that happen? What loopholes in the system actually got that many ballots through the system that counted?" Jones said. "We are looking to open people's eyes about how voting works and how voting laws are affecting our voting processes."

Jones said Ding, Lake, and Crye were asked to speak about election integrity and avoid discussing previous political opponents, loses, and national politics.

"That's not what this is for ... and they've agreed to do that," she said.

According to the event's website, there will be desserts, drinks, and a raffle; general admission tickets are $150. A portion of the proceeds will go to the A-Z Foundation Group supporting veterans.

Ding has indicated that he will speak at San Joaquin Freedom Fest, regardless of how many signatures are collected.

Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. To support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Steve Ding faces heat for attending event with Kari Lake, Kevin Crye