“30,000 Ballots Still To Be Counted:” Shasta County Waits for Election Outcomes

An update from the Shasta County Elections Office yesterday, March 6, has put election night results into perspective. Out of a total of approximately 52,000 ballots received by the Elections Office so far, less than half, about 22,000, have been counted.

“It’s looking like we have just over 30,000 ballots left to count,” Shasta County’s Assistant Clerk and Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut said yesterday, during a press conference. A press release with exact ballot totals was issued later in the day showing just under 30,000 remain to be counted. That includes ballots from election day and the day before, March 4 and 5, that were placed by voters in ballot drop boxes, or arrived by mail.

The Shasta County Elections Office has clarified that precinct totals that were released late on election night included all votes cast in person at polling places in precincts across Shasta County, but not those dropped in each precinct ballot drop box. 

The news about the large number of uncounted ballots remaining means current vote totals showing Supervisor Kevin Crye being recalled by a margin of 245 votes, and supervisor candidate Matt Plummer beating out the incumbent, Patrick Jones, by just under 900 votes, are essentially meaningless until more votes are counted.

Election results have been slower to release during this election, Francescut explained, due to changes in how ballots are processed using the county’s new Hart InterCivic machines. The Elections Office purchased Hart machines last year after the county board voted to cancel the county’s contract with Dominion voting systems and move to Hart instead. Both are certified voting systems in California.

Shasta County’s last county-wide election was counted with Dominion voting machines, which used machine scanners located at each precinct to scan ballots for errors, print a result for voters, and store the vote count totals on a “results cartridge” that was delivered to the Elections Office after 8 pm with ballots.

The new Hart InterCivic machines do not include vote scanning, so all ballots cast at the precincts must be delivered to the Elections Office after 8 pm before the counting process can begin. As ballots come in from the precincts, Francescut said, staff has to stack them into groups of 100, examine them for issues such as color of ink used, put them in sacks and then “push them through the machine.” 

The Dominion scanning system also sped the process by letting voters know right at the precinct if the machine showed they had made a mistake on their ballot, such as casting a vote for two candidates when there is only supposed to be a vote for one. Not having that scanning procedure at the precincts, Francescut explained, means that elections staff are now needing to examine more of these kinds of ballots which are flagged by machine at the Election Office.

For example, if a voter fully filled in one vote bubble and then accidentally made a mark on a second bubble for the same race, that may be flagged as an over-vote by machine scan. It’s an issue that can often be easily remedied after review by elections staff, who follow careful procedures to determine whether they can identify the voter’s intent. The process is called ballot adjudication and is accessible for anyone to observe in real time by screen upstairs in the Elections Office. 

“It’s gonna take time, so just be aware,” Francescut said. “Please be patient with our staff. They are doing a great job. And they’re following processes that are required and that allow this to be as efficient as possible.”

Francescut also said that while voter turnout was relatively low this election, the November General Presidential Election is likely to produce a bigger turnout, meaning vote counts will likely come out even more slowly this fall.

Asked if she’ll ask the county board of supervisors to approve funds to add vote scanners at the precincts, Francescut said she has not yet determined that.

The Elections Office says new vote totals will be released Friday, March 8, at 4:30 pm.

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