Elections Office Undertakes Voluntary Recount of Crye Recall Votes

Today, Monday March 18, votes for and against Supervisor Kevin Crye’s recall are undergoing a hand recount at the Elections Office. The decision to recount recall votes was made by the Elections Office, Assistant County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut says. 

“When I made this decision on the 12th it was based on how close the race was,” Francescut explained. “I think at that time it was thirty-nine votes apart and now it’s forty-six.”

This elective hand recount by the Elections Office doesn’t rule out another recount being undertaken at the request of either Supervisor Kevin Crye or recall supporters, Francescut said. A request to recount votes can be made by any party within five days of the results of the vote being certified, something which will occur on or before April 2.

A recount in response to an outside request would be paid for by the requesting party, Francescut confirmed, and is a “more intense process.” 

“That (specific) recount process allows observers to be a little bit more on top (of the ballot counters),” She explained. “You can see how we have boundaries in place right now . . . with the (official) recount process observers can be standing right on top (of the ballot counters) and verifying the ballots . . . and they also have different rights to challenge different ballots.”

Francescut said she sees voluntarily hand recounting as an excellent way to confirm the results of machine counting especially in close races. “When a contest is really close,” Francescut explained, “we have the ability to add the count into the manual tally.”

“We’re doing this just to help ensure and just give us 100% confidence that the machines accurately counted votes,” Francescut continued. “So like, again, the hand count (done) with the machine count is a really great way to audit and so we use this as a valuable tool.”

“Hand counting is a great audit tool,” she continued. “It’s something that we need to have in our back pocket when elections are tight. Hand counting with machine counting is what makes the elections secure, it helps that verification.” 

This is a relatively simple hand counting process, Francescut explained, because it’s a yes/no vote meaning elections staff have to look at only four possible results from each ballot they count, a yes vote, a no vote, an overcount where both responses were filled in by the voter, or an undercount where neither response was filled. 

Elections staff engaged in the recount in several small groups on the ground floor of the Shasta County Elections Office on Market Street. They counted by precinct, beginning each count with the precinct number before announcing each type of vote followed by a count of all ballots with that vote.

By mid-morning Monday, Francescut said she had not yet looked at current time studies to determine exactly how long the hand count, which involves examining about 9,000 ballots, would take. She says she expects to post results online as they emerge with some early results likely emerging soon.

“We’re just going to see how quickly we get through this,” Francescut said, “before we determine if we’re going to add additional contests into this process as well.”

A total of six election observers from the public showed up to watch parts of the recount between 9-11:30 am Monday morning. Supervisor Patrick Jones was among them.

Elections results will become official once certified. If Crye is recalled, he will leave office following official certification. If he’s not recalled, he’ll remain in office through the rest of his term, which ends December 2026.

This article was updated with video at 5 pm on March 18. Have questions, concerns, or comments you’d like to share with us directly? Reach out: editor@shastascout.org.