Shasta County Registrar of Voters Announces Resignation, Effective April 29

Once again, Shasta County will soon be filling a vacancy for the County’s chief election official. After less than eight months in office, Registrar of Voters Tom Toller announced today by press release that he is stepping down from his role, effective April 29. 

Toller said he delivered his letter of resignation to the Board of Supervisors yesterday, March 24 explaining that his decision is the result of medical issues.

“I regret to inform you that I have been struggling with a serious illness for some months now”, Toller wrote to the Board.  “Based on the advice of my doctors, it has become clear to me that I cannot both focus on my health and continue to serve the citizens of Shasta County with vigor and undivided attention.”

He used his press release to explain the timing of his decision, emphasizing that he is resigning well in advance of the next gubernatorial primary in June 2026 to ensure ample time for the County to onboard a replacement for his role. 

Under state law the County Board of Supervisors is required to appoint a replacement when the ROV’s office is vacated early. It’s up to the Board to choose whether their appointee will fill the seat only until the next election or through the rest of the term. Toller’s term ends on January 3, 2027.

Toller was appointed as Shasta County’s chief election official on June 2, 2024 after the ROV position opened up mid-term when former long-term elected ROV Cathy Darling Allen retired early. He was selected by a majority of the Board of Supervisors, despite a lack of any election-related experience. 

Like Toller, Darling Allen also vacated her position due to health-related reasons, citing a stress-related cardiac diagnosis. During Darling-Allen’s last year in office, she responded to numerous, at times chaotic, changes to the election process that occurred at the behest of the County Board. Those changes included canceling the County’s contract with Dominion for voting machines, voting to hand count ballots, then signing a new voting machine contract with Hart InterCivic in order to comply with federal and state laws.

Since taking over the ROV role, Toller has faced similar work-related stress and scrutiny as Darling Allen did, despite being chosen by a Board majority that strongly opposed the former ROV. While Toller expressed concerns during his interview process about how Darling Allen had been running the Department, he concluded after five months in the role that there was no evidence of fraud within Shasta County’s election processes. 

Since being appointed, Toller has presided over a single election, the November 2024 general, which was plagued by issues largely outside his control. Those included a ballot printing defect and observer-related concerns that prompted the California Department of Justice to provide Toller and his staff with extra support. 

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