Melinda Greene took a strong lead in the race for the Santa Barbara County clerk-recorder-assessor position Tuesday night, in her campaign to oust longtime incumbent Joe Holland.
Greene had 59.5% of the votes cast in early results compared with 40.2% for Holland, according to County Elections Office counts released shortly after polls closed.
Greene called the early results “very promising” and said she was excited.
She attributed the early lead to her dedication to the office and work ethic. She also praised the team in the Clerk-Recorder’s Office for its hard work.
“Our department in so many ways works so hard for this community,” Greene said. “Nobody even knew what this department did before I started this election run. If I can shine some light on this crew…they deserve this.”
The county clerk-recorder-assessor office oversees elections and property value assessments, and tracks public records and documents — such as marriage certificates, business names and birth certificates.
Holland was seeking a sixth term as the county clerk-recorder-assessor. He was first elected to the position in March 2002.
He first joined the county assessor’s office in 1984 as a real estate appraiser. He later worked as an assessment supervisor, project manager and business division manager before being elected to his current position.
Holland said his goal if re-elected was to maintain the integrity of his office in conducting elections and the quality of his office’s appraisers. He added that part of his goal of keeping the office impartial was not accepting political endorsements.
He said another goal was to determine whether artificial intelligence could be used to detect real estate fraud.
Heading into the election, Holland faced questions about how he has been running his office from home. Holland has been dealing with health issues and has been operating his office remotely for at least 18 months.
County supervisors addressed the issue when Holland gave his annual presentation remotely in April, when department heads were specifically asked to give them in person during the public hearings.
Holland told the Board of Supervisors that he can run the office effectively from home, including the 2024 primary election, the 2024 general election and the 2025 special election for the state redistricting measure.
He also said he hopes to complete his physical therapy and return to the office but added that millions of people work from home.
Melinda Greene, who currently serves as the county’s chief deputy clerk-recorder, is running for the seat after decades of experience with the county.
Greene has been working with the County of Santa Barbara for 30 years, starting as an accountant and auditor in 1996. She later served as a budget analyst and project manager, and later as an IT project manager.
During her campaign, Greene said she planned to increase transparency in the office’s procedures and improve outreach to inform the public about the office’s functions and procedures.
One of Greene’s chief concerns is fraud, which she believes may get worse with the rise of AI generators. She hopes to bring new tools and techniques to the office to fight possible fraud.
Greene previously worked with Assemblyman Gregg Hart’s office to make certain kinds of liens illegal and has testified in fraud cases.
All five of the Santa Barbara County supervisors have endorsed Greene for the job.
The clerk-recorder-assessor-registrar of voters is currently paid an annual salary of $275,511, according to Santa Barbara County.
Check back with Noozhawk for updates to this story and other election results.
The Santa Barbara County Elections Office will release additional election night results later Tuesday night, as staff process ballots received from polling places, mail and drop boxes. It will then release updates in the coming days as additional ballots are processed and counted. The county needs to certify the June 2 election results by July 2.
