Shasta County Elections Commission could recommend that BOS mandate a ballot hand count

Four months after a state law banned the manual tally of ballots, Shasta County’s fixation on counting ballots by hand continues.

The county Elections Commission is primed to send a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors this week that would defy state law by creating a local ordinance that mandates the hand counting of ballots at precincts using paper poll books.

The commission meets on the issue at 2 p.m. Monday in the Board of Supervisors chamber on Court Street in downtown Redding.

The Shasta County Elections Commission was created last fall by District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones, who said the panel was a way to restore trust in the voting process. At the time, he was chairman of the board.

Jones is part of the board’s far-right majority who voted in January 2023 to terminate the county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems, which triggered an attempt to develop a system to hand count ballots.

Instead, it spurred legislation that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law in October that bans the manual tally of ballots in elections with more than 1,000 registered voters. Shasta County has more than 110,000 registered voters.

Three members on the Shasta County Elections Commission, Bev Gray, Ronnean Lund and Lisa Michaud, were seated by the board’s far-right majority: Gray by Jones, Lund by Supervisor Chris Kelstrom and Michaud by Supervisor Kevin Crye.

That's why the county’s first-of-its kind citizens election group has some in the community worried the commission could influence supervisors to strip some duties now held by Shasta County Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen.

On the agenda for Monday’s Shasta County Elections Commission meeting is an agenda item to send a recommendation to the board to create a local ordinance to hand count votes.

The staff report features three pages of legal analysis. But it’s not clear who provided the analysis, or if the county counsel’s office reviewed and/or approved the staff report.

A phone message left Friday with acting County Counsel Alan Cox was not returned.

The staff report cites experts including Jeffrey O’Donnell, who has gained national attention for his election fraud conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election. O’Donnell spoke at one of Jones’ town hall meetings on the voting issue last summer.

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There is no evidence of massive fraud in the 2020 election, nationally or locally. Yet the staff report for Monday’s meeting states that O’Donnell has documented evidence “that the United States of America and Shasta County … were the victims of a coordinated multi-state conspiracy to defraud the 2020 General Election using voting machines.”

In the November 2020 election, Jones won his District 4 seat by 11 percentage points.

Former President Donald Trump carried Shasta County in 2020 by 33 percentage points.

Former Supervisor Les Baugh, a church pastor and staunch conservative, pointed to the absurdity of it all at a September 2022 board meeting after hours of comments about claims of fraud in the November 2020 presidential election from local election deniers.

“This county (voted for) President (Donald) Trump. Why you want to contest that, as a conservative county, I have no idea," Baugh said at the meeting on Sept. 13, 2022.

Meanwhile, Monday’s staff report also suggests that voting machines in California are connected to the internet. State election officials, including Shasta County Registrar of Voters Darling Allen, have said more than once that election machines are not connected to the internet.

What's more, California election code 19205 states in part that "no part of the voting system shall be connected to the internet at anytime" and "no part of the voting system shall receive or transmit wireless communications or wireless data transfers."

Shasta County Elections Commission member Susanne Baremore said she has questions about Monday’s meeting.

“Well, I am concerned that they are essentially recommending policies to the Board of Supervisors that will break the law,” said Baremore, who was seated on the commission by Supervisor Mary Rickert. “But I understand (Darling Allen) is not willing to do that. So, I think that leaves us at the same stalemate that Patrick (Jones) and the board has been for years now. Cathy Darling Allen is an elected official who has the autonomy to run that department in compliance with the law.”

Elections commissioner Dawn Duckett, who was seated by Supervisor Tim Garman, said she would not vote for something that breaks state law.

The staff report for Monday's meeting state's that in order to retore trust in the election process, the commission recommends supervisors create the local ordinance to hand count votes. The lack of trust allegation runs counter to voters' actions.

In 2022, Darling Allen, who has been county clerk and registrar of voters since 2004, was re-elected convincingly with nearly 70% of the vote.

Darling Allen in early February announced she will retire in May after two decades in office.

The topic of the citizens group’s legal standing came up at its Jan. 8 meeting, when commissioners discussed, among other things, if they had the authority to review the signed petitions that put Supervisor Crye’s recall on the March 5 ballot.

Commissioner Lund said: “We have legal standing because the ordinance that created the commission said one of the duties is to observe and inspect election-related records and documents for accuracy.”

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Duckett countered, “But you’re assuming that the ordinance trumps state law.”

County Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut said she reiterates what Darling Allen has said in the past that “any course of action will be to continue to follow the laws of the state of California and protect the democratic process for the voters in Shasta County.”

Francescut said she had a conversation with Lund, but she was not consulted about the agenda item regarding a local ordinance to hand count ballots.

Lund declined to answer questions about Monday's meeting that were emailed to her and instead emailed a statement:

"An official statement from the Shasta County Election Commission will not be provided privately. All official statements will be provided in the public forum of the Commission’s meetings."

David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-225-8219. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Could Shasta County supervisors mandate hand-counted votes?