Shasta Supervisor Jones' town hall to again feature a prominent election denier

Supervisor Patrick Jones has no intention of giving up on his efforts to get Shasta County to sue California over the recent law that bans tallying votes by hand except in the tiniest towns.

To underscore his resolve, Jones is hosting a third town hall this Saturday in which the keynote speaker is Douglas Frank, a prominent election denier who wants to get rid of voting machines and has claimed — without proof — that there was massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Jones’ town hall is 6 p.m. Saturday at the Red Lion Hotel at 1830 Hilltop Drive in Redding. The event is free and open to the public.

“Dr. Frank, I believe, is a very highly influential data analyst. This is a series of town halls I have done with regards to elections and I have had a great response. I’m sure it will be standing-room-only this Saturday,” Jones said.

Frank, a former high school math and science teacher in Ohio, travels the country spreading election fraud analysis that has been debunked numerous times by political experts. Frank uses charts and graphics to get his point across.

Last spring, the County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming refuted claims that Frank made during presentations he made to several clerks in the state.

“To be ‘Frank,’ we have done our best to inform citizens of election security in Wyoming,," the association stated in a letter to Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray in late March 2023. "Dr. Frank’s public tour of disinformation seeks to undermine the positive work that has been done — and continues to be done ― to ensure the integrity of our elections," the letter said.

Justin Grimmer is a political science professor at Stanford University who has discredited Frank’s analysis of election fraud. Grimmer also is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution think tank.

Grimmer has told the Record Searchlight that Frank's "primary test of voter fraud is a correlation between the prediction he makes about the number of people who will vote from every age group and the actual number of people who turn out to vote from every age group.”

But it’s unremarkable, says Grimmer, that age groups with more people will have a greater voter turnout — not an example of manipulating data to rig an election.

Frank is no stranger to Shasta County. He addressed the Board of Supervisors in September 2022 and later spoke to the Shasta Freedom Coalition in Redding that same day.

When Frank spoke to supervisors two years ago, he said he was eager to be in the North State because he learned “there was a large group of patriots here.”

“The unrest in your community is growing and I’ll be back again soon,” he said.

Jones asked Frank at the September 2022 supervisors meeting about voting machines and if they are connected to the internet. The Secretary of State’s office has said that voting machines are not connected to the internet and Shasta County Registrar of Votes Cathy Darling Allen has said the same thing.

Frank told Jones during the public meeting that he can prove it by a sensor that he carries with him.

“I can hold it next to a machine and I can tell you whether it’s talking to the outside world or not,” Frank said.

Without verified evidence, Frank has said that Shasta County residents’ confidence in fair and accurate elections is declining, an allegation that 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 supported Assembly Bill 969, which bans hand counts and was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October.

She also was against the supervisors’ decision in January to prematurely terminate the county’s contract with Dominion Voting Systems and move toward developing a new hand-count system. The board’s far-right conservative majority of Jones, Chris Kelstrom and Kevin Crye voted to ditch the Dominion machines.

More: How many votes do Shasta supervisors need to sue California over hand counting ballots?

Meanwhile, Jones said that he continues to talk to different attorneys and that “they are doing analysis and strategy right now. So, I am pretty sure, one way or the other, it will move forward,” Jones said of the potential that Shasta County will sue the state over AB 969.

Jones said the county should sue the state over the election law for the same reason it’s suing California over AB 205, the law that allows the California Energy Commission to consider approving the Fountain Wind renewable energy project, which could overrule the county’s rejection of the project in October 2021.

He calls both AB 969 and AB 205 an overreach by the state. Jones said people who complain that the county would use taxpayer money to sue California over AB 969 are being hypocritical.

“Nobody is complaining about spending taxpayer money (to sue the state over) AB 205,” Jones said.

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 X @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Why is this prominent election denier speaking again in Shasta County?