“Ink Overspray” Issue Prompts Change to Ballot Processing Procedure, Shasta Elections Official Announces
Shasta County Elections staff have “pivoted” their ballot processing procedures in response to the printing issue, which involves an ink overspray that is not visible to the naked eye and did not become apparent during pre-election testing.
Updates have been added as of 10.30.24 at 5:10 pm. This is a developing story.
Shasta County could process up to 117,000 ballots for this fall’s election. It’s unclear how many of them have been affected by a recently-discovered printing issue, which is affecting the usual ballot processing procedure. The same issue was reported on October 23 by the Registrar of Voters in Nevada County which uses the same printing service, Runbeck.
The issue was announced today, October 30, by recently-appointed Shasta County Registrar of Voters Tom Toller. He said the issue is not visible to the naked eye and did not become apparent during pre-election testing.
The Elections Office is “pivoting” ballot processing procedures in order to “ensure that every eligible ballot is accurately counted”, Toller said.
The plan is to review all affected ballots and duplicate them for processing, a procedure that Toller says complies with California law.
“This procedure is outlined in California Law,” Toller wrote, “and requires more steps but maintains the integrity of the election, and all steps will be carefully monitored to ensure accuracy and transparency.”
“We’re thankful to our partners at Runbeck, Hart Intercivic, and the Secretary of State,” Toller continued, “for helping us chart a path forward so that all votes will be counted accurately.”
Runbeck is the contracted printing service used by the County, while Hart Intercivic is the maker of the County’s voting machine system. Secretary of State Shirley Weber is California’s Chief Elections Official. Shasta Scout reached out to Weber’s office for comment and was told the state is aware.
The Elections Office emphasized that the new ballot procedure will not impact voters’ ability to complete and return their ballot either by mail, in a drop box, or at the polls. Early voting has been ongoing since October 7. The Elections Office has received 32,500 ballots from voters so far.
Toller was appointed to the position of Registrar of Voters in June of this year. He has never run an election before. He’s working closely with Assistant Registrar of Voters, Joanna Francescut, who has served in the Elections Office for 16 years.
Anyone wishing to observe ballot processing at the Market Street office is “strongly encouraged” to do so. For further information about the election process or to inquire about observing ballot processing, please contact the Shasta County Elections Office at 530-225-5730 or visit elections.shastacounty.gov.
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I am so frustrated and confused hearing this. We voted over a week ago at the Election Office on Market Street because we wanted to see our ballot was received and counted.
When we got to the office we were told that we could only put our ballot into a drop box. I asked about putting our ballot into the machine, but was told that there was no machine to put it in. The computers that were lining the wall were there to assist the disabled.
So now I am very confused because if the ballots are to be hand counted, then what are the Hart machines doing? And, if our ballots are to be counted by the Hart machine, then why was I not able to feed my ballot into the machine at that time?
Speaking with other citizens, we are wondering what the observers will be able to observe? Are the ballots being fed into the machine by election workers at the precincts or after hours at the Election Office? Will there be observers at that time??
Is there a website where this information is provided??
Hi Annalisa. These are good questions. There are several kinds of machines used in voting processes. One is a ballot marking device which is required for disabled voters but can be used by anyone. These would likely be the ones you noticed along the wall.There are also ballot counting machines, which are used to tally votes and which can be seen operating at specific times. When the County had Dominion voting machines there was another machine which you could feed your ballot into and which would notify the user that the ballot had been correctly filled out. That particular machine is no longer part of the County system since a new contract with Hart Intercivic was signed. If you email the elections office, you can be asked to be placed on the observer list and will receive information about when various activities occur. You can also simply stop by the Market Street Office and sign in. I do it regularly.
Thank you for your response. I will contact the office tomorrow.
Anyone that denies there is and has been voter fraud since we have had machines counting the ballots is very uninformed. The evidence is in every state across the US. Hillary Clinton admitted to the American on record some years ago that there was fraud – of course she will not speak those words now!
I as a good part of the country have been waiting to see and hear what kinds of shenanigans will be seeing during this election cycle and it began weeks ago through out the country and has been reported. There is an evil amongst us folks – we need to PRAY….PRAY….PRAY!
Absolutely! Pray, yes! We the people still have responsibility!
So provide this proof.
I’m sick of the people who accuse former President Trump of wanting to cause chaos in the election process. These are the same sort of folks who call supporters of Trump “uneducated” and “redneck”, and are also the first to compare Trump to Hitler.
These remarks are not only false, they cause even more division among our people. Let’s dial down this extreme rhetoric and move forward together.
Yes Marsha, the vote in 2020 was so massive the fraud was impossible to hide …. but far too many are still in denial but they will accept reality eventually.
Just in…today Oct 30, 2024 …. system failure?! ….
Jena Griswold, Colorado secretary of state, announced today that 600 secure passwords for 63 of the state’s 64 counties have been mistakenly published online for anyone to see.
We’re just getting started folks.
Stewart: You say, “the vote in 2020 was so massive the fraud was impossible to hide” – and yet, courts didn’t find evidence of that massive fraud. I’ve often heard people with your viewpoint say the courts are all corrupt. So . . . If you believe the elections system is corrupt and the courts are corrupt who do you trust to right the situation you believe is so wrong? Under the constitution, courts are our check and balance on unjust laws. Can you help me understand what constitutional approach you’re advocating for?
Solid evidence was brought into many a court case, which was overturned by liberal judges. Solid proof!
Elizabeth: So what would the next step be, in line with our nation’s rule of law?
So out of about 60+ cases that went to trial, all of the judges were liberal??
Fact, 60+ cases were all overturned and not every single judge was a liberal like you would like to claim.
The only honest way for elections to be free from fraud is to go back to hand counting nationwide. We just need more election volunteers who are screened for integrity.
Hand counting is much more susceptible to mistakes than machine counting.
Shasta County’s hand recount in the primary was 100% accurate, while the machine tally was 99.97% accurate (it didn’t count 3 ballots that were filled out clearly but incorrectly, and it also didn’t count a 4th ballot that was skipped when clearing a paper jam).
California hand counts require 4 person teams to ensure accuracy. Other states use 2 or 3.
Sounds like we’re only using 3 people to remake/duplicate damaged ballots…
Mahmoud: Four teams of three people, actually. That’s how you get from three to the number twelve, printed in our story.
Yes, multiple “teams” in either case. The point is that there are only 3 pairs of eyes on each hand copied ballot when California requires 4 pairs of eyes on each hand counted ballot (despite transcribing being the more error prone task).
I’m sure the accuracy will still be plenty good enough (3 person counting teams are 99.7% accurate in WI), but I highly doubt these 3 person copying teams will be as accurate as the 4 person counting teams that California Democrats recently outlawed to score partisan points against Shasta County Republicans.
I don’t believe this ink overspray crap
This is in no way the fault of Shasta County elections staff. It was caused by Arizona-based Runbeck Election Services, which printed the ballots. Nevada County is having the same “ink overspray” issues with their Runbeck ballots: https://cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/printer-error-affecting-nevada-county-vote-by-mail-ballots/
Read carefully. It is not the machines. It is an ink over spray which may affect the ability of the machines to count the ballots affected, They are replacing the affected ballots. Not changing the machines.
Fraud default thinking is like suspecting a person is guilty of a crime before they are even indited or tried. Innocent until proven guilty is the law of our land.
There has been NO evidence at all of fraud, no guilt found. People just want to declare fraud without a shred of evidence because Trump wants it that way so he can cause chaos in the electoral process. This is a blatant attempt to destroy the Rule of Law in our county. If the Law does not rule, then a King, or dictator, will. That has not worked out well in history. If you call yourself a patriot, you should not be cheering for the destruction of the Laws that govern us set down by our forefathers.
Nevada county, california had the same issue with 77,000 mail in ballots. So these printer issues probably are the responsibility of the printing company.
Of course reading a barcode is not something a human can do so the scanner that picked up the issue detected an error. Good. It could just have easily recorded the vote differently than the scanned image with some software manipulation and no one would be the wiser. I have seen demonstrations of ballot scanners miscounting scanned images. This is the problem with bar codes and QR codes.
When I vote from abroad, I fill complete an online form which produces a ballot showing a QR code and a printout of my selections. I then scan it and fax it to Shasta County. The county said I voted but I don’t see my selections. I believe the QR code, is the only portion of the scanned image I return, that the county scans to record my vote.
Anyway, we begin to see the issues involved when using scanners and tabulators and QR codes, and machines connected to registration records in real time that can print ballots and record votes etc… There are many steps and many ways the systems can be manipulated. There is a report out of MI of 80K voters registration records being used to produce over 200k votes and then records of those votes disappearing when the problems are discovered.
It’s a mess.
As an election worker, and a Vietnam vet, your response was right on!
Thank You.
I agree , that’s why we should hand count….only 117,000. We could get a correct count on hours. Without suspecting any fraud. No brainer.
Loren, that would be illegal under state law.
There is such a thing as an unlawful law, too. It’s not against the law to also hand-count.
Elizabeth: True, they could also hand count. I believe they would need significant budgetary adjustments and staffing adjustments to do so, based on past discussions by the Board.
Law, bans the manual counting of ballots in elections with more than 1,000 registered voters. There are more than 110,000 registered voters in Shasta County.
But maybe Hobbs and Jones will try again, eh? Or maybe after losing so many times their money has dried up?
Loren, I agree with you. I say we with hand count the ballots after they have been counted by the machine. State Law be damned. We have a right to know our ballots are being counted fairly. I think the company that caused the “overspray” needs to assume the cost for a full hand count..
Agreed. I can’t remember which state, but saw they are hand counting. The person’s ballot is counted immediately at the poll. By night’s end, polls closed, all have been counted and now turned in. One day election day. Was previously done for many, many decades, back to our forefathers.
This isn’t true and hasn’t been true for decades.
There are what 60 to 64 different types of ballots in Shasta county? Each with about four different pages of ballots??
100 years ago we did not have half the population in the United States that we have now. We have more population and more complicated voting issues than we did and there is no way in hell that people would be able to count and report the results in One day.
Thanks for playing.
Well said.
Absolutely correct
My default is already set to fraud, when it comes to “unexpected” maintenance on election machines, because shasta county IS conservative, and so a target. Bracing myself.
Precisely
Elizabeth: I think all of us are bracing for various reasons. I appreciate the Elections Office sharing the news quickly and we have reached out to the state as well. There will be a press conference tomorrow and I’ll be there.
Looking forward!
I thought the machines were infallible, tested beforehand and certified etc… low and behold when they are expected for perform something new happens. This is no surprise for us who read the stories from around the country from GA to PA to WI and so forth. Runbeck, that name sounds familiar, oh yes, Maricopa 2022? Nothing should surprise us when it comes to proprietary software on voting machines. This ink issue happened somewhere else within days. I too am glad Shasta Co. is on top of it.
this is not a machine issue, it’s a printing error from the vendor. apples to oranges not apples to apples.
Elizabeth: You are likely one of those who wanted to get rid of Dominion voting machines….and now you just blithely say you knew this would happen all along, some Patriot you are. And remember, there’s no hand counting, thanks to Gail Pellerin and the Governor signing the bill.
Just wondering, I haven’t turned in my ballot yet. Can I pick another, so I can fix myself?