Declaration By Shasta County Board Not Required to Make Election Results Official, State Confirms

While some of the results from Shasta County’s March 5 election are already clear, some races could still hang on the approximately 1,000 ballots left to count. Under state law official election results won’t be certified for up to another fifteen days.

On or before April 2, Cathy Darling Allen, Shasta County’s elected County Clerk and Registrar of Voters, will, by law, issue her certification of election results. Once certified, results for races under the county board’s jurisdiction will then submitted to county supervisors to be declared.

A section of a Shasta County Board’s staff report from November 7, 2023, showing that there “are no alternatives” to supervisors’ ministerial role of declaring certified election results as submitted by the Elections Office.

California Elections Code Section 15372, requires election officials to prepare a certified statement of the results of an election and submit it to the governing body within 30 days of the election. But the board’s approval isn’t needed to make election results final, a representative from the Secretary of State’s Office confirmed for Shasta Scout on Friday, March 15.

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