With more costs to come, Shasta County will spend $950,000 on new voting system

Shasta County officials on Thursday approved spending $950,000 to hire a company to provide the equipment needed to hand-count ballots, something that hasn't been done in California in decades, at least not on the scale proposed in the county.

The Board of Supervisors' action comes even as elections officials try to develop a process that does away with machine counting and instead manually tallies ballots. County officials are also trying to figure out all of the costs associated with converting from machine counting.

The board's vote was driven by the majority of supervisors' distrust of the vote counting machines it was using, Dominion Voting Systems. But over the past few months a large number of people also urged the board to stick with Dominion, rather than hand counting.

Public comment before Thursday's board vote reflected the divide in the community over hand-counting versus machine tabulation.

Joann Roskoski, past president of the League of Women Voters in Shasta County, criticized the supervisors for adopting hand counting without knowing all of the costs involved.

"We don't even know if it can be done. But for sure, the money you're looking at today is the tip of the iceberg. That money is going to get larger and larger and larger. And I agree with the last speaker that not having come up with a plan before you set sail on the Titanic was a big mistake," Roskoski said.

But Terry Rapoza, a leader in the State of Jefferson movement, told the board he felt they made the right decision to scrap machine counting because it can't be trusted.

"When you look at situations where we the people have the right to protect our vote, to protect our liberty, are we going to give that to a machine? Are we so dependent now on technology and what we believe in some cases of infallibility of machines? Who programs the machines?" Rapoza asked.

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In a report submitted to the board March 28, Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen estimated her office may have to spend more than $1.6 million on more than 1,200 additional employees to count ballots. She has opposed hand counting ballots and urged the board to continue to work with Dominion.

"So there'll be a lot of staff that's required. And so we intend to continue to work on developing processes and procedures. And we'll be back before the board with more information about costs," Darling Allen said after the meeting.

She said the county is working with the California Secretary of State's Office to develop a counting method that conforms to election laws.

The latest on Mike Lindell's offer to Kevin Crye

One speaker asked if MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell planned to pay the cost of hand-counting ballots in the county.

Supervisor Kevin Crye said in February he had been in contact with Lindell, who said he offered the county financial support.

Crye at Thursday's meeting did not answer the speaker, so Supervisor Mary Rickert asked Crye if Lindell would pay the cost of a manual tally. Crye said Lindell offered to financially help the county if it was sued over hand counting.

“As I promised, if you have any pushback, including lawsuits against you or your county, I will provide all of the resources necessary, including financial and legal, for this fight,” Crye said in February, reading from an email Lindell sent him.

Crye didn’t say how much money Lindell has agreed to commit.

In a follow-up, Rickert asked Crye Thursday if Lindell had put money into an escrow account the county could use to pay for its election costs. He replied "No."

Dominion Voting Systems sued MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell last year, alleging $1.2 billion in damages to its brand for alleged defamatory comments Lindell repeatedly made about the firm, according to USA Today.

Dig deeper: Will Shasta County's plan to hand count votes meet election law, disability access rules?

The complaint accuses Lindell of perpetuating a “Big Lie” about Dominion’s role in the 2020 presidential election. It says he knowingly spread false information about how Dominion’s voting machines conduct audits, investments from foreign countries and its presence in U.S. voting systems.

Lindell “knowingly lied about Dominion to sell more pillows to people who continued tuning in to hear what they wanted to hear about the election,” the complaint alleges.

Unnecessary spending?

Dominion has also sued Fox news and several others over what it claimed were knowingly false claims about the 2020 election.

Crye said he had confidence in the elections department and did not feel the county was at risk of being sued.

Crye urged residents to be patient and give the hand-counting process a chance to work.

"I think what you're going see, I know what you're going see, when this is all over, and that period of time comes to where we've got the new system, voters aren't disenfranchised and you see how this economically plays out," Crye said.

Supervisor Tim Garman said he opposed going to a hand-tallying system, but since the county had already terminated its contract with Dominion in January, he had to support contracting with a new vendor, Hart Intercivic, to begin planning for the next election.

"We have no choice at this point but to support the registrar's office and approve this and get this money to them so they can do what they need to do. Somehow we will have to figure out how to pick up the pieces. Because I can tell you, you all know the MyPillow guy is not going to fund any part of this. Let's be real," Garman said.

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Rickert said she was upset the county was unnecessarily spending money on a new way to count votes when the funds could be used for other important programs.

"As a fiscal conservative, I'm highly offended by the fact that the majority of the board is willing to spend over $2 million to replace the Dominion system," she said.

She wondered whether the county could develop a hand-counting system in time for an election in November.

"I'm really deeply concerned about the efficiency and timeliness of a hand-counted election. We have a huge population. It's my understanding that there's no other counties of this size that would undertake this procedure by hand-counting versus machines. And I feel like you're almost kind of setting up the elections office to fail," Rickert said.

Reporter Damon Arthur welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834, by email at damon.arthur@redding.com and on Twitter at @damonarthur_RS. Help local journalism thrive by subscribing today!

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta Co. spends $950K on new voting system after hand count approval