“Beautifully Old-School Uneventful”: Amidst Statewide Scrutiny, Shasta County Holds Peaceful Election Day

Susan Wilson, President of the Shasta County branch of the League of Women Voters, leans in to inspect the process of ballot adjudication on election night, November 7. Photo by Annelise Pierce.

Shasta County’s November 7 election affected so few Shasta County voters that only about 1,300 ballots were counted on election night. Yet, the tiny election day still drew the in-person attention of observers from several organizations from across the state.

Dora Rose, the Deputy Director of California’s League of Women Voters, was one of them. She said she attended because of her organization’s concerns that Shasta County voters be able to cast their ballots unimpeded.

Rose explained that her organization is happy with the recent passing of AB 969, a new state law that prevents California counties from hand counting votes in elections with more than 1,000 eligible voters. The law was developed in response to a decision by Shasta County’s Board of Supervisors earlier this year to rid the county of Dominion voting machines and implement hand counting for all elections.

Dora Rose, the Deputy Director of California’s League of Women Voters, watches election staff as ballots are counted on election night, November 7. Photo by Annelise Pierce.

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Several representatives from the California Secretary of State’s office were also on-site for Tuesday’s election, including Joe Kocurek, who told Shasta Scout that monitoring elections in California counties happens regularly as an ongoing aspect of the Secretary of State’s operations.

“I guess you could call it quality control,” Kocurek explained, “making sure that everything in the elections process is working as it should. We are here just to observe. We have not touched a piece of equipment.”

Kocurek said he and other state monitors, including Lexi Howard, observed voting both at polling places and during the ballot count at the main elections office and noted no concerns with the process.

“It was beautifully old-school uneventful,” Kocurek said around 10 p.m. on election night as the elections office prepared to close after ballot counting.

“I have not heard complaints … and people have all been cordial,” Kocurek continued, emphasizing that he had no concerns for his personal safety while in the county.

Had he or other state monitors noticed any significant concerns with the voting process, such as machine malfunctions or impeding of election officials, Kovurek said they would have reported those to the state. Otherwise, he said, no formal report will be submitted.

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Bev Gray (in pink), a member of the newly-formed Shasta Citizens Election Advisory, watches as a member of the elections staff prepares to enter the counting room with a red bag containing ballots. Photo by Annelise Pierce.

Attorney Paul Spencer of the nonprofit Disability Rights California (DRC) was also in Shasta County on election day. He said part of his organization’s usual work is observing election processes all over the state to ensure that those with disabilities have access to independent voting.

“We’re making sure that the machines are physically accessible, functioning, and that poll workers are trained to operate them,” Spencer said.

For this election, Spencer explained, DRC was particularly concerned about observing the election because the county was deploying its newly purchased Hart InterCivic ballot-marking devices, which provide accessible voting for those with disabilities.

A barrier to accessible voting that DRC often observes, Spencer continued, results from a lack of appropriate poll worker training on ballot marking devices prior to election day. He said the poll workers he spoke with on election day appeared to have been adequately trained and expressed that they felt comfortable using the new Hart machines.

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Only a few members of the community showed up to observe the ballot-counting process on election night. Those observers included Bev Gray, who sits on the newly-formed Citizens Election Advisory Commission in Shasta County, and who has repeatedly told the public that she’s concerned about the possibility that election fraud has already occurred in Shasta County.

Gray did not challenge the counting process on election night. But across town on elections morning, she and other community members made public comment before the Board of Supervisors to once again question the security of Shasta County elections.

On November 8, one day after the election, Board Supervisor Patrick Jones, who opposes all machine counting, told the national media organization One America News (OAN) that Shasta County has found proof of election fraud in seven local races. Jones has made similar statements to the Shasta County public many times but has never presented any documented evidence of his allegation.

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