Shasta Elections Office Drops New Vote Totals; Results Remain Preliminary
About 93,000 ballots were cast this election. That means the number counted so far still represent only about a third of total votes.
11.9.24 6:49 am: We have corrected a typo about Resner’s lead over Mezzano, which she holds by only 311 votes.
Today, November 8, County Registrar of Voters Tom Toller released new vote totals before sharing the approximate number of ballots that have been cast in Shasta County this election, which he estimates at 93,000.
Based on that figure, the approximately 33,000 that have been counted so far still represent only about a third of Shasta’s vote. The bottleneck, Toller explained, is the ongoing duplication process necessitated by a recently-discovered ink overspray issue on many ballots. The issue requires Election Office staff to make a copy of every affected ballot and then double check the copy for accuracy before scanning it along with normal ballots through a vote-counting machine.
“The good news there,” Toller said, “is that we’ve pretty much worked through the backlog . . . so we have a good flow, and it’s operating very smoothly now.”
He said the Elections Office reported to the Secretary of State today that 66,000 ballots remain to be counted. Toller clarified that this number applies only to ballot card A, the first card in this election’s two-card ballot. However, he continued, because the ink overspray issue has disproportionately affected card B, more of those cards still remain to be counted, leaving the true uncounted ballot total at closer to 72,000.
Toller also responded to a question about whether he would consider hand-counting the tens of thousands of oversprayed ballots. He said no, explaining that doing so would be “physically impossible” because it would require too many staff hours to accomplish before the deadline to certify election results, December 3.
Focusing on the lack of trust some community members have in machine counting the vote Toller said that perspective leaves him, “at a loss for words.”
“I don’t know what I can tell the public,” Toller continued, “but I have seen absolutely no evidence that our Hart Intercivic machine is not tabulating accurately. If there’s ever a problem, in my experience, it has been due to human error, and it’s always something that we can solve.”
Moving forward, Toller said, the public can expect vote total updates on Tuesdays and Fridays, around 5 pm, until all votes are counted.
See the latest results, released at 4:30, November 8, below.
Election Results: Shasta County Board District 3
In District 3 Corkey Harmon is leading with 57.10% of the vote. Harmon has 840 votes more than Rickert.
Election Results: Shasta County Board of Education Area 1 & 2
SCOE Board Area 1:
Michael Orlicky is still leading over Michelle Renee Tyson, with 51.80% of the vote. He has only 363 votes more than Tyson.
SCOE Board Area 2 – Top 2 Will Win
Jackie LaBarbera is leading with 24.57% of the vote, followed by Jessica French with 18.86%, Richard Gallardo with 18.40%, Amy Cavalleri with 13.64%, Don Aust with 14.44% and Dolores Lucero with 10.08%. The top two candidates will win. French holds the lead over Gallardo by only 116 votes.
SCOE Board Area 2 – 2-Year Seat
Teresa Roberts is leading Cindy Vogt, with 64.75% of the vote. Roberts has 4,654 votes more than Vogt.
Election Results: Redding City Council Two-Year and Four-Year Seats
Two-Year Seat – Top 1 Will Win
Erin Resner is leading with 46.89% of the vote, followed by Mark Mezzano with 44.55% and Anthony Spengler with 8.56%. Resner leads over Mezzano by only 311 votes.
Four-Year Seat – Top 2 Will Win
Paul Dhanuka is leading with 40.45% of the vote, followed by Mike Littau with 20.59%, Joshua Johnson with 17.81%, Dave Backues with 11.43% and Ian Hill with 9.71%. Littau leads over Johnson by less than 587 votes.
Election Results: Anderson City Council – Top 3 Will Win
The top three vote-getters will win seats on the Anderson City Council. Darin Hale leads with 24.47% of the vote, followed by Susie Baugh with 25.80%, Bonnie Simmons has 23.49%, and Stan Neutze has 22.80%. Baugh leads over Simmons by only 77 votes.
Election Results: City of Shasta Lake Council – Top 3 Will Win
Daniel Ringwelski is winning with 23.64% of the vote, followed by Greg Watkins with 21.95%, Toni Coates with 16.48%, Janice Powell with 15.21%, Dolores Lucero with 12.34% and Tena Eisenbeisz with 10.37%. Coates leads over Powell by only 58 votes.
Election Results: Measures P&Q
Measure P, which would stop the County from being able to acquire private land for transfer to other private parties – in order to be used for the public’s good – is currently succeeding with 51.23% of the vote, a margin of 375 votes.
Measure Q, which would give the Board another option for how to fill elected officials’ midterm vacancies and limits how long the Board can appoint to fill those seats, is failing, with 56.49% of voters opposing it. The measure is currently failing by 1,973 votes.
See all Shasta County election results here .
Have questions, concerns, or comments you’d like to share with us directly? Reach out: editor@shastascout.org.
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