Shasta Elections Commission Suspended After Board Discussion of New Lawsuit Against Elections Office

Only two weeks after deciding to retain the Shasta Elections Commission, Supervisors have now voted to suspend the Commission’s work until a new lawsuit against the Elections Office is resolved.

The 4-1 vote was made by Supervisors in closed session yesterday, February 12. It was announced after the Board returned from a discussion regarding the lawsuit. Supervisor Kevin Crye cast the only dissenting vote. 

The newest lawsuit against the Elections Office was filed on February 3 by Shasta County activists Dan Ladd and Laura Hobbs. The two identify themselves in a piece of correspondence included in the lawsuit as the President and Vice President of the self-described Shasta Elections Task Force, a private citizen group whose members have engaged in election observation and protests.

In late October just weeks before the election, Shasta Scout observed Ladd wearing a Shasta Elections Task Force name badge while passing out voter guides espousing specific candidates, including now-Supervisor Corkey Harmon, as part of a church event. He was asked to leave by organizers, who had referred to the event earlier in the evening as non-partisan, saying no candidates would be endorsed.

This is the second case Hobbs has filed against the Elections Office. Last year a similar case, alleging “mal-conduct” at the Elections Office was dismissed by Shasta County Superior Court Judge Stephen Baker due to what he called a “profound lack of evidence.”

The new lawsuit alleges that Shasta County’s new Registrar of Voters, Tom Toller, engaged in a number of illegal election activities during the November 2024 election, such as “violations of public observation requirements,” “violations of federal voting system standards,” “improper ballot duplication procedures,” and “suspected security breaches”. The list of alleged violations included in the lawsuit goes on for several pages.

Documentation that Ladd and Hobbs present in the suit includes a number of declarations from election observers, including statements from appointed Shasta Elections Commission Chair Ronnean Lund and newly reappointed Elections Commissioner Patty Plumb. The declarations are written and signed statements about what was seen during observation of election processes last fall.

The Board did not share with the public a reason for suspending the actions of the Elections Commission until the lawsuit is resolved. But a public comment from Elections Commission Chair Ronnean Lund appeared to shed some light on the matter. 

Lund said she was contacted last week by Deputy Shasta County CEO Stewart Buettell, who told her that he had been instructed not to schedule any Elections Commissions meetings until the Board could discuss the new lawsuit in closed session. 

“I was informed by him,” Lund told the Board, that “he had been instructed to not (post notice of a scheduled Election Commission meeting) due to the fact that declarations that were completed by myself and another Commissioner concerning the November 2024 election were included as documentation in the lawsuit that was filed against the ROV.”

Buettel did not respond to a request for comment from Shasta Scout to confirm Lund’s account.

Lund’s declarations document the alleged limitations she experienced while trying to observe the elections process. Plumb’s declarations cite instances where she was told to leave the Elections Office because staff said no observable activities were happening.

The surprise announcement about the suspension of the Elections Commission prompted exclamations from the audience and concerns that the Board had violated Brown Act rules by voting on the Elections Commission during an agenda item focused on the new lawsuit.

Some in the public also accused the Board and County Counsel Larmour of “witness tampering,” saying the the decision appeared to be an attempt to intimidate Elections Commissioners who could later be called to testify in Ladd’s case.

Even before the Board’s vote to suspend the Elections Commission, some community members had begun voicing similar criticisms. Their statements included rebukes of Supervisor Kevin Crye, who they said has not taken their concerns about elections seriously. They also mounted sharp attacks against County Counsel Joseph Larmour, who some accused of taking on an outsized role in decision-making for the Board.

Among those incensed by the Board’s decision was Richard Gallardo, who was filmed by Shasta Scout during the November 2022 election, as he tried to breach security boundaries in order to access already-voted ballots.

During yesterday’s Board meeting, after Gallardo’s microphone was turned off by County staff, he continued to stand at the dais, yelling towards Counsel Larmour “don’t be a damn pirate.”

Co-plaintiff Ladd spoke after the Board’s vote, claiming that the decision made both the Board and Counsel Larmour guilty of “criminal offenses”. Speaking over Lamour’s requests to stay focused on the topic currently under consideration by the Board, Ladd demanded the County’s attorney stop talking.

“He’s wasting my time. He’s wasting your time,” Ladd bellowed over Larmour. “You guys, this is scorched earth right now…. You guys know it’s corrupt. You’re backing it up. You’re not letting us have a Commission that can bring this to you so you can take action. So you guys are witness intimidation (sic) against the citizens that are trying to have fair and transparent elections.”

“We’ve got to bring out the big guns now”, Ladd declared, without explaining what he meant by that phrase, “because this is not about the ROV anymore. This is about the Shasta County Board of Supervisors stifling our vote and it’s allowing corruption…”

Board Chair Crye struggled to keep community members on course, at times buckling under the pressure of those who felt they should be allowed to opine unfiltered on the vote to suspend, regardless of the topic at hand. At one point, Counsel Larmour implored the Chair to remember the Brown Act’s requirement to hold all members of the public to the same standard of speech.

Addressing Lamour’s futile attempt to maintain order, community member Rick Hutchinson spoke in no uncertain terms.

“I came here to address the Board of Supervisors, not some lawyer,” he said. “You were not elected. I didn’t vote for you. I voted for Kevin Crye, and I expect you (Crye) to start standing up for yourself.”

The first hearing in the Ladd/Hobbs lawsuit will be held on April 1 at 9 am in the Shasta County Superior Court. At Supervisor Matt Plummer’s request, the Board will consider at an upcoming meeting whether to form an ad hoc committee that can meet to focus on elections while the Commission is suspended.

4.12.25 7:53 pm: We have updated the story to correct a date.

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