Shasta elections official: County likely needs 1,300 workers to hand count votes; 'even we cannot perform miracles'
Opting to manually count ballots in an election could set Shasta County back more than $1.6 million and would require hiring 1,300 workers to help with the tally and renting a facility that's large enough to carry out the work securely.
That's the determination from county Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen who late Monday night released a 26-page analysis on hand-counting in which she urges leaders to reject a system that has not been tested anywhere in California.
The report, which is accompanied by a three-page letter addressed to the Board of Supervisors, dropped just hours before members are scheduled to decide what future elections will be like in the county.
Supervisors will consider on Tuesday Chair Patrick Jones' push for counting votes by hand as well as a voting system that also allows for at least two races to be manually counted. Darling Allen is calling on the supervisors to either reinstate the contract with Dominion Voting Systems or approve a contract for new voting machines.
To do otherwise could put the county at risk of not being able to conduct elections within the mandated timelines and result in voter disenfranchisement, potential litigation and erosion of confidence in local elections, she said.
Darling Allen in her letter cautions supervisors not to undermine and intrude on her responsibilities as an elected official by trying to create a system that likely won't comply with state election laws.
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"Please carefully consider your decisions and understand that while my office is full of extremely competent and prepared professionals, even we cannot perform miracles," she wrote.
Supervisors Jones, Kevin Crye and Chris Kelstrom voted to ditch the Dominion machines.
But supervisors have been told by county Counsel Rubin Cruse Jr. and state Attorney General Rob Bonta, via a letter, that getting rid of voting machines would break federal election laws, which says each polling site must have one voting machine that is accessible to the disabled.
Supervisors Mary Rickert and Tim Garman voted against terminating the Dominion contract and both have said they will push to rescind that decision and reinstate the Dominion machines.
On Tuesday, supervisors will consider adopting a policy that would require a manual tally for one randomly selected election contest and establish a commission, appointed by supervisors, that could select a local race to hand count if it so chooses.
Darling Allen would randomly select what race to hand count.
The Election Manual Tally Selection Commission would meet in public no later than five days after the election and prior to the results being certified to consider picking a second eligible race to hand count.
More:What would happen if Shasta County opts for hand-counting ballots? We asked these experts.
Darling Allen would randomly select the first race to hand count before the commission met.
The policy would not obligate the commission to select an additional race to hand count.
If supervisors don't rescind their decision to terminate the Dominion contract, they have been advised to give Darling Allen the authority to negotiate a new voting machine contract with Hart InterCivic or ES&S.
Dropping the Dominion machines will be costly.
Darling Allen’s office estimates replacing Dominion with either of the two other state-certified systems, Hart InterCivic or ES&S, would cost the county more than three times more than keeping Dominion for fiscal years 2023-24 and 2024-25.
The cost to keep Dominion would be $524,000. For Hart, the estimated cost is $1,806,853. The estimated cost for ES&S is $1,878,450, according to the latest staff report.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta County elections official warns against counting votes by hand
