Meet Elaina

---

Elaina Cano is a dedicated wife, mother and grandma. She and her husband, Marty, have raised their three sons in San Luis Obispo and have been public servants for 27+ years. 

Elaina was raised in Riverside, CA and came to the Central Coast in 1992 after her then fiancé, Marty, received a full-ride scholarship to play football at Cal Poly. Soon thereafter, they started a family. In 1994, Elaina began working for the City of San Luis Obispo Parks and Recreation Department and in 1998 Marty began working for San Luis Obispo County Probation Department.

Elaina knew at a very early age that she was going to pursue a career in public service as she has always had an immeasurable amount of love for this country and an admiration for those that are brave enough to lead, not only at a national level but more importantly at a local level.

Elaina had her first hands on experience with elections with the City of San Luis Obispo as a temporary worker in the City Clerk’s office. The election was to decide the future of the Dalidio Marketplace Project. What was so intriguing to her was that there were people on both sides passionately standing up for what they believed was the best for the community that they lived in and yet she had the privilege of participating in a non-partisan role, similar to her role as County Clerk-Recorder. Elaina quickly realized the importance of learning and studying the State’s Constitution and California’s Government and Elections Code as well as what it meant to be truly impartial and unbiased. She had to put aside her personal feelings about the project (since she too was a resident of San Luis Obispo) and focus on assisting with the conduct of a fair and honest election. 

Since then, Elaina has had the honor to serve the City of San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach as their City Clerk, as the Elections Division Manager for the County of Santa Barbara and now as the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder. She has assisted in conducting elections over the past 17 years for each one of these jurisdictions. Elaina’s experience in conducting a variety of different elections, such as municipal, water district, recalls and countywide elections has given her the advantage of having a wide-range knowledge base in how each election should be conducted under the specific laws. 

The County Clerk-Recorder is a position that few people understand and yet one that is integral to the public’s trust in local government and our core democratic process. In this role, Elaina serves as the Commissioner of Civil Marriages, County Clerk, County Recorder, and Registrar of Voters.

Each interaction in these specific roles is very personal in nature. Although the election process is typically what the public associates with her office, it is the day-to-day responsibilities of the Clerk-Recorder that are equally important to the residents of this County.  

Nevertheless, Elaina has made a commitment to the community to make herself available to provide opportunities for the public to observe the very complex processes of conducting an election and provide them with answers and/or explanations to their questions and concerns. Elaina will continue to conduct elections with the highest level of transparency and integrity in hopes that she gains back the confidence of the community as a whole. 

Elaina and Marty currently live in the Village of Arroyo Grande, while their sons are living their best life in Long Beach, Murray, Utah and San Luis Obispo.