New California State Movement Hopes to Invalidate Shasta County’s Machine-Counted November Election Results.
Representatives want a hand-count audit of all ballots. Registrar of Voters Tom Toller has repeatedly refused their demand, citing time, cost, and legal restrictions. He is expected to certify Shasta’s vote today.
This is a developing story. At 3:35 pm we made minor edits and additions to this story after attending a related protest.
Leaders of the Shasta County chapter of a movement known as New California State (NCS) gathered yesterday in the Redding Public Library to hear from NCS President Paul Preston. The exact size of NCS’ support base is unknown, but Preston claims it has organizers in 57 of California’s 58 counties. The group, which has recently rebranded itself as “separatist” rather than “secessionist,” hopes to establish a 51st state called New California.
About 60 people, many of them frequent public commenters at County Board meetings, showed up to the “town hall”, which was organized by Shasta County Elections Commissioner Patty Plumb. County Supervisor Patrick Jones, who appointed Plumb, also attended the event, as did Bethel Church deacons Carl and Swan Lysgaard.
The event included speeches from Preston and Plumb, as well as failed candidate for supervisor Laura Hobbs. The stated goal of local activists Plumb and Hobbs is stopping election certification until a hand count of all ballots cast in the November election is conducted.
David Clements, a former law professor at New Mexico State University who trains citizens how to pressure election officials not to certify elections also appeared virtually, offering strategies on how local activists can prevent the election from being certified.
Shasta County Registrar of Voters Tom Toller is expected to certify the local election results for the California Secretary of State today, December 3, in time to meet state deadlines. Some of the activists who met at the library yesterday reconvened today at noon outside the Elections Office, where about twenty people held signs and flags but did not seek to interfere with today’s expected certification by Toller.
They are still considering other ways to disrupt election certification in the coming days, including pushing back on the County Board’s declaration of the certified results, which is likely to occur during supervisors next scheduled meeting on December 10. They were encouraged by outside activist Clements to “pack the room” at that Board meeting in order to “create drama” between community members and their elected and appointed officials, which can then be “amplified” through publication.
While Hobbs, Plumb, and others in CNS claim the current elections process violates both state and federal laws, they have not filed anything in court to back those claims. Clements told them they should worry less about making legal arguments to back their case and more, he said, about creating disruptive public confrontations and then amplifying those confrontations for public consumption via the media.
“It’s all about capturing the drama between you and the . . . boards of supervisors,” Clements told the room, “and having a vector for distribution to increase the pressure, and increase the pressure.”
NCS hopes to disrupt election certification at the County Board level, but California’s Secretary of State has said in no uncertain terms that the Board’s failure to declare certified results won’t change the outcome of an election. But Clements told the group yesterday he thinks the legitimacy of the Secretary of State’s claim could be tested through litigation, if Shasta County community members push back on the Board’s declaration of the results.
He also offered another approach: convincing the local Sheriff that elections laws may have been broken, in the hopes the department will declare the Elections Office a “crime scene” and “seize the machines”. A sign brought to the noontime protest the day after the town hall meeting appeared to reflect Clements advice, calling on Jones to declare a crime scene – something he can’t do legally do.
According to Clements, Donald Trump’s ascension to the presidency early next year will create momentum when it comes to addressing perceived election issues, saying any documentation that local activists can gather about their attempts to stop election certification over the next two months could be used in future criminal investigations.
“It would be nice if you had a track record of all your meetings, all of your interactions, all the times you put notices, all the times you’ve served with affidavits,” Clements said, noting that the FBI might be led by “the good guys” by then.
“So when you show up and you face off and you keep giving (the Board and County Counsel) those notices . . . what they can’t do later is feign ignorance that they didn’t know . . . so if you finally get a heavy handed DOJ that’s righteous . . . it’s going to be a completely different dynamic.”
His statement was met by murmurs of agreement from across the room.
None of the speakers at yesterday’s “town hall” provided any specific or verifiable evidence of election misconduct. Instead, they repeated vague allegations of allegedly suspicious time audit stamps, complaints about not having yet received the results of Shasta’s logic and accuracy machine testing, and claims that ROV Toller has been dishonest in his responses to their questions. Some of their concerns relate to an ink overspray issue that has affected the election process this fall but Plumb and Hobbs as well as other activists were claiming election misconduct and asking for a hand count long before that printing issue occurred.
At one point Plumb compared her view of the local elections process to trying to figure out the truth about a cheating spouse, saying sometimes you might not yet have proof but you just “know in your knower” that something’s not right.
She characterized her own approach to pushing back on elections as “kind of reckless,” saying sometimes it feels like she’s “throwing constitutional spit wads at the wall,” to see what sticks. The important thing, she emphasized, learning together, from God and the Constitution.
Toller was appointed by the Shasta County Board majority earlier this year with the stated goal of increasing trust in the local elections process among the relatively small group of vocal community members who have expressed concern about the process. During his interviews with the Board, he expressed similar uncertainty about the accuracy of local elections. But since becoming Shasta’s top elections official, he’s repeatedly emphasized that he’s seen absolutely no evidence of mishandling or election tampering.
He is now the target of the same constituency who have repeatedly attacked the County’s former ROV, Cathy Darling Allen and her right-hand woman, Joanna Francescut, who has worked in the Elections Office for sixteen years and is still employed as the County’s Assistant ROV under Toller.
Despite repeated public demands by Hobbs and Plumb, Toller has repeatedly refused facilitating an analog hand count citing both California law that requires machine use and practical restrictions of a full hand count audit, such as staffing and budgetary constraints.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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I’m still waiting for literally any evidence of this so-called massive election fraud that has been happening…
Not feelings of people who just somehow know it’s going on, but actual proof of all of the massive collection fraud.
At this point because the election fraud was so massive, and so many people looking for it, it would be almost impossible for there not to be some type of proof.
So anybody?? Proof? Anything??
We live in an age of narrative where facts are ignored or attacked. Their concerns are noted and easily dismissed but people don’t care if they bought the story. They’re so invested in it now they have no way but forward, continuing their ridiculous claims. To do otherwise would be to admit they were always wrong.
Of course, Bethel cult members are involved, their own craziness equals all this voter fraud craziness. Wake up people, Bethel isn’t a good thing for Redding! Do some research into their tax free income and you’ll find plenty of skeletons! I have! Guess who’s been in the Whitehouse laying hands on and praying for Trump. Yeppers, Bethel cult members! The cult leaders, Bill Johnson, and Kris Vollotton, obviously don’t believe in separation of church and State because of their proven involvement with local & national politics. #nomoretaxfreecult
Who has been in the White House the last few years has been Joe Biden (approval rating consistently lower than Trump’s was in his first term). Your idea of a “cult” has been discredited by this election alone. You leftists are going to keep driving people from your state until there isn’t a state anymore anyway.
Why not make Jones, Plumb, Crye, and Hobbs hand count all the ballots under the supervision of the elections department? I suspect it wouldn’t take long before they realized why machines are so useful.
I challenged Patti Plumb to name one jurisdiction in these United States with 100,000 registered voters or more that hand count votes. Nothing but crickets!
Patrick Jones is king of the crazies & has been paid by Anselmo to destroy Shasta County.
Annelise:
A clarification for your choice of words describing the Board of Supervisors’ upcoming ministerial action…
The Board of Supervisors will not declare the certified results.
The Board will declare the winner of each office under their jurisdiction, pursuant to California Elections Code section 15400.
15400. The governing body shall declare elected or nominated to each office voted on at each election under its jurisdiction the person having the highest number of votes for that office, or who was elected or nominated under the exceptions noted in Section 15452. The governing board shall also declare the results of each election under its jurisdiction as to each measure voted on at the election.
So, the Board’s ministerial action at its next meeting is limited to declaring:
– Corkey Harmon elected as 3rd District County Supervisor
– County Measures P and Q were rejected by the voters
They have no jurisdiction over the results of any other contest on the ballot. Unless I missed another County election on the final official results report.
Bob: Thanks so much for this clarification which also matches my understanding of the Board’s role. I should have been more clear in the story.
The show must go on. The acters in the bright lights of the media. The script followed and the audience entertained. In this sequel to The Big Lie – the election deniers Douglas Frank and Jeffery O’Donnell are played by David Clements, Terry Rapoza and the State of Jefferson is played by Paul Preston and The New California State. lame duck Patrick Jones, Election Commissioner Patty Plum and defeated at the ballot box Laura Hobbs play themselves and the Big Lie minions play the audience entertained.
Meanwhile back at the Board of Supervisors “Our Guy Crye” is having a reflective moment. Was appointing Toller a mistake. He was supposed to be the guy to manipulate the election in my favor. But now he wants to call it right. And I won so he doesn’t have to do anything but count votes and certify. But after my years of election denying cries of rigged, machines are fixed and we need hand counts how can I not back the Big Lie sequel?
And if the game plan is to be more disruptive at the Board meetings, (who will know), will I have to call the Palace Guard back to stand back and stand by? What about our constitutional sheriff? Will the deputies haul people out like they did Jenny O’Connell Nowain and the press? And since rational candidates for the SCOE Borad got elected do I have any chance to get the ed money I want? “Our Guy” Crye has a dilemma.
And what about the Seven Mountain Ministry? Are they ambassadors or just trying to keep their finger on the political pulse of the county?
Anyway it seems we are getting what the majority of the voters voted for. The sequels to the Big Lie have become so common as to be just another in a long line of Shasta County kerfuffles.
I have a question.. Do both of the Plumbs atten Bethel?
McDonald: I haven’t asked them.
This is just insanity and Bethel is all up in it of course. I’m soo exhausted by their endless DRAMA. They seem even MORE committed to this lunacy and it’s making thinking of the future even more dreadful. I hope that the Sheriff doesn’t cave in to their tantrums, the next few years are going to be hard enough to get through and many of us can’t afford to move :(.
Another claim that Bethel is the problem in the county, but I have gone back to the very beginning of this whole cluster **** and the one common denominator seems to be Patrick Jones and his rabid group of followers. And let’s face it if he were to show claiming that he has been wrong all along and the real problem is his lack of being trusted in elementary school and being deprived of being picked as being in charge of blankets at nap time in kindergarten and feeling that the votes were miscounted by his teacher. Let’s take up a collection and give Mr. Jones a blanky of his own and point him to the door and wish him a happy retirement from public office and pray that his minions follow him back to his little fort
Well, if you leftists hadn’t driven all the good people from your state
Dis shit be hillbilly dangerous and hilarious all at the same crime… and ongoing even.
I’m not sure if a New California is needed.
And again, I’m not sure if a New California is not needed.
I have an open mind to listen.
It is heartening to read comments that object to the methods being used to try to make noise.
The fact that they advocate for “creating disruptive public confrontations and then amplifying those confrontations for public consumption via the media” rather than attempting to change regulations and laws, invalidates what these activists are trying to do – a good thing IMO!
Well said Robert.
First, Thank you to Shasta Scout for your diligent reporting. It is thorough and timely and extremely informative.
Second, what is happening? What is the end game for these election disrupters? What are they protesting?
And lastly, it’s shocking at how completely ignorant this group of people are.
Sigh……it’s going to be a long 4 years.
Thanks Kelly: I’ve edited your comment because I have a hard and fast rule about not allowing the Scout platform to be used to tell other people to leave this community. Thanks for your understanding.
I am sorry & truly apologize for my comment regarding that and will remember that for future comments & postings.
Kelly: No worries. It seems to be a common thing.
“Create drama.” That’s the Jones gang in a shelled nut. The New California Secessionist/Separatist movement is a distraction for feeble identities who cannot think for themselves and who operate on paranoia and fear dictated by a leader or leaders. Here, it’s the Jones/Crye Gang and their minions. Seeking to disrupt the democratic process and foment unrest smells of sedition and these leaders and henchmen need to be investigated for seditious behaviour. Although we have certain things in common, these people are NOT Conservatives. They are a cult of self referenced Radical Individualist Libertarians gone rogue. They place “ma rights” above the supreme law and worship liberty without virtue. Skeptical that January will bring more decorum, civility, and respect and that reason will rules over paranoid, disproven conspiracy theories. Doubtful that Corkey will read this (based on past apathetic and underwhelming performance) but if he does my request is to fight like hell against being played like a cheap fiddle by Narcissist in Chief Crye who more and more resembles a Confidence Trickster than an elected supervisor.
Yep, interesting that these folks are just going to try to bypass the constitution (you know, the document that founded America and has stood for some 400+ years) and just make a lot of noise and create chaos and they think that will get them what they want. Too bad they don’t really know what they want. They keep talking about having a new state, which is just not gonna happen. Then what? Government by the biggest asshole?
The US Constitution was written in the summer of 1787 and ratified shortly thereafter. That would make it only about 236 years old…just saying.
And to think that I used to be a math major at one point. Thanks for the correction.
Well, people will just keep leaving your state then.
Who do they think should have been elected that wasn’t? Who do they think was ripped off?
I don’t get it.
Anita: It’s a good question and I have many questions I hope to ask but I would note that if they’re trying to build statehood through the process of creating an alternate governmental structure, then invalidating the elections of the current governmental structure would be strategic. That’s not something I’ve been told by activists though. Just a thought I’ve had.
Annelise, you are on to something. Driven by political loser P. Jones and his sidekicks Plumb, Hobbs, Street, and their J.C.K. Cartel of MAGA supporters, these convoluted, poor lost souls, preach secession, kind of like the South during the U.S. Civil War, under fascist white nationalist secessionist Jefferson Davis, hence the mythical fantasy called the “State Of Jefferson.” The State Of Jefferson – New California State leaders are secessionists who think God and the U.S. Constitution gives them the power to claim that Shasta County has the right to form its own “nation-state” outside the State Of California.
The J.C.K. Cartel and our local secessionists are now emboldened by the adjudicated rapist – 34 count convicted felon’s win for the presidency. You may remember that during the last SCBOS meeting, Jones got his puppets Crye and Kelstorm to send a complaint to the U.S. Attorney General, demanding an investigation of Shasta County elections. (hey Jones, where’s your trash can?) This is a desperate attempt using “elections” to open a legal standing argument at state and national levels to test the State Of Jefferson – New California delusion that they are a nation-state outside the State Of California and that AB 969 is unconstitutional, so the J.C.K. Cartel can call elections null and void and perhaps eventually even use “Charter Power” to succeed from the union. Also, remember, during the last SCBOS meeting, secessionist State of Jefferson Terry Rapoza (of Carl Bott’s MAGA radio fame) recommended the board wait until “Matt Gaetz takes office” of the U.S. Attorney General. Of course, Gaetz withdrew because of abundant sex and drug accusations. (Is that behavior a requirement to work for the trump administration?)
Will Jones, Hobbs, and their Cartel of supporters secede in getting Shasta County into a huge legal battle at state and national levels, hoping that the convicted criminal’s administration and the U.S. Supreme County will give Jones and his Cartel the delusional power they think they have? Maybe they can get to a court with many millions from fascist Elon Musk or someone way beyond the level of a pathetic loser carpetbagger local MAGA hero like Reverge Anselmo because Mr. Pillow is about to go bankrupt, and Shasta County sure as hell doesn’t have that kind of money to spend on Jones, Hobbs, Plumb, and the Cartel’s delusional B.S.
Being convicted of felonies by partisan courts don’t count. Your state is a mess because of leftist policies. Everyone from California keeps moving to my red state to get away from California’s looney government. The land of milk and honey is no more.
Yeah, I “know in my knower” that Patty Plumb is a nutcase. Same goes for Laura Hobbs. As for Patrick Jones, he’s just a scammer and a grifter.
To the upstanding members of the elections commission: your boy won, go home. What are we going to do about the faerie and dragon issue in Shasta County, now that your investigation has reached a dead end?
These people are exhausting. I’m so tired of being held hostage by the mentally unwell.
Every day this county gives me another reason to leave. This very vocal minority is absolutely nuttier than an almond orchard. These people will never be happy with ANY result, apparently. I do appreciate Tom Toller for now bowing down to their pressure now that he realizes their election interference accusations are nothing but hot air. Will Shasta County ever be “normal” again?
It’s truly EMBARRASSING that some people are so CLUELESS about the FACT that our elections ARE NOT FREE OR FAIR regardless of who won in this election! It is NOT Bat Shit Crazy People or The Mentally Unwell who are the PROBLEM! It is the WILLFULLY IGNORANT People Who refuse to DO THEIR OWN INVESTIGATING to find the TRUTH. The people fighting for TRANSPARENCY and TRUTH are PATRIOTS fighting for our CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS and a BETTER FUTURE🇺🇸
Here’s “my own investigating…”
Machine accuracy results from the 1% hand counts going back to Nov 2018:
Election: Accuracy: Machine:
11/5/2024 TBD Hart
3/5/2024 99.97% Hart
11/7/2023 100.00% Hart
3/7/2023 100.00% Dominion
11/8/2022 99.96% Dominion
6/7/2022 100.00% Dominion
2/1/2022 100.00% Dominion
9/14/2021 100.00% Dominion
11/3/2020 100.00% Dominion
3/3/2020 100.00% Dominion
11/5/2019 100.00% Dominion
8/27/2019 100.00% Dominion
6/4/2019 100.00% Dominion
3/26/2019 100.00% Dominion
11/6/2018 100.00% Dominion
Overall accuracy:
Hart: 99.974% (15,209 out of 15,213)
Dominion: 99.993% (28,998 out of 29,000)
1% Hand Count: 100.00% (44,213 out of 44,213)
What were the discrepancies you found?
I ask because every issue I have ever encountered during audits of the voting system results have been the result of the voter not marking the ballot as instructed or a disagreement about how to apply the California Uniform Vote Counting Standards to adjudicate a marking that does not follow the instructions. Examples are a vote using a check mark in the voting target or circling a candidate’s name rather than filling the target in or using a pencil or wrong color ink. None of the issues have been an error of the voting system.
I didn’t find them, the elections office did and reported them in the statements of vote every election. In the March primary, the machine count failed to properly count 4 ballots:
2 ballots were not scanned during a paper jam. The election worker was supposed to clear the jam and rerun the entire batch, but did not follow proper protocol and just resumed the tabulation without noticing the batch of 100 ballots had only 98 counted. 1 human error by staff resulted in all votes in all contests on 2 entire ballots not being counted.
1 ballot was scanned by the machine as having 2 marks and invalid (but apparently had been properly marked by the voter). The adjudication team who review every ballot machines deem invalid failed to notice that this ballot was valid. 2 human errors on the part of the adjudication team resulted in 1 vote in 1 contest on 1 ballot not being counted.
1 ballot was marked improperly with a dash and the machine failed to pick up the selection. Even though the voter didn’t follow directions, the law says if the voter makes his/her intent clear the vote must be counted. However, the adjudication team failed to correct the machine’s invalid determination. 3 human errors (1 voter, 2 staff) resulted in 1 vote not being counted in 1 contest on 1 ballot.
In the November 2022 election, the machine count failed to accurately count 2 ballots:
In one “vote for 2” contest a voter made 2 selections, but crossed one out. The machine counted both votes since 2 selections were possible. The voter followed instructions in crossing out a choice he/she didn’t want and was not required to vote for 2. But because 2 selections were possible, the ballot wasn’t sent to adjudication so 0 human errors resulted in 1 false vote being counted in 1 contest on 1 ballot.
In the other ballot, a voter wrote-in a valid candidate and the machine correctly sent the ballot to human adjudicators, but the adjudication team failed to record the voter’s choice. 2 human errors on the result of the adjudication team resulted in 1 vote not being counted in 1 contest on 1 ballot.
So 7 human errors on the part of elections staff combined with 1 human error on the part of a voter (2 if you want to count the voter who changed his/her mind and crossing off a selection as instructed) resulted in 6 ballots not being properly counted.
Note that to improperly count those same 6 ballots by hand, elections staff would have needed to make 24 human errors since by law manual counts must be done by 4 person teams. There is no law specifying how many election workers clear paperjams or even adjudicate ballots (though the “rule of 2” suggests at least 2 people should be doing each task).
Also note that the psychological principle of priming is working against adjudication teams. They are reviewing thousands and thousands of ballots where the machine properly determined that the voter did not make a selection. For instance, 1,779 out of 18,938 district 3 voters cast ballots this November, but did not vote in the county supervisor contest.
So if you’re an adjudicator, you’re agreeing with the machine’s determination of an invalid vote over and over and over so it is easier to see how a valid ballot can slip through.
Contrast that with a hand counting team for whom nearly every ballot they review is valid and not only do you have more eyeballs on the ballot, but you’re also primed to believe the ballot is going to be valid before you see it.
Every example you cited was the result of human error, not an error of the voting system. So, it is a misrepresentation to say that the voting system was inaccurate.
You know when a person is completely and utterly full of it?
When they use the line, “Do your own investigating/research”
They can’t even back their own argument without rhetoric and yelling/screaming.
Come back when you actually have tangible proof, and not something the MAGA cult or Right Wing Media has regurgitated.
Sure
You have had years to prove your “facts”. So far, a big fail. Patriots first uphold and defend the constitution, not replace it with “God”. Clearly you have an agenda to undermine our democracy and replace it with a dictatorship.
Sounds like the communist Democrats
OMG! I have never seen so many people who are “Bat Shit Crazy”
What is up with these people ?
This is the last thing Shasta County needs. It’s time to put all of this aside, come together for the Residents of Shasta County. Get to work servicing our needs.