Shasta's election deniers trying to stop certifying vote results showing Crye recall losing

Shasta County election officials expect to release the results of the remaining ballots from the March 5 primary on Thursday.

That same day, election officials will certify the election results, county Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut said Tuesday.

“(Registrar of Voters) Cathy Darling Allen is going to certify on Thursday and as soon as she certifies she will send the results to the (California) Secretary of State’s Office,” Francescut said.

Francescut expects the Secretary of State to certify the local results by April 12.

Francescut spent the first part of Tuesday giving a presentation on county voter rolls at the Shasta County Board of Supervisors. District 4 Supervisor Patrick Jones asked for the presentation.

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Jones — with no verifiable evidence — has said that the county's voter rolls can’t be trusted, fueling further unfounded claims that Shasta County elections are not secure.

After Francescut’s presentation, a parade of Jones and District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye supporters came to the podium, imploring supervisors not to certify the March 5 primary. In addition, attendees asked the county take steps that would break state and federal election laws, such as hand counting all votes and not sharing the local voter rolls with the state.

Follow the latest the vote count from the March 5 Shasta County primary election.

“There is a list of laws that we have to follow,” Francescut told the Record Searchlight after her Tuesday morning presentation. “We are required by federal law to have a voter file and to maintain the voter file. We are required by a different federal law to have it connected to the statewide voter file.”

Not certifying the election would leave the results of Crye's recall in limbo. As of Tuesday, Crye is beating back the recall by 48 votes.

Jones is on his way to losing his reelection bid as he trails challenger Matt Plummer by nearly 20 percentage points.

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Among those who asked supervisors not to certify the election was Laura Hobbs, who is second to Allen Long in the District 2 supervisor race.

“We cannot certify this election,” she said. It shouldn't be certified, she claimed, because “It cannot be audited."

The county elections office has been conducting a 1% audit of the March 5 primary for more than a week. Included in the audit is a hand count of every ballot in the Crye recall.

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Francescut said it’s not the supervisors’ role to certify the election.

What supervisors will be asked to do at their next meeting on April 2 is declare the results of the election, which Francescut said is a ministerial duty — a legal obligation supervisors fulfill without using their own judgment or discretion.

Supervisors OK transfer of $12M for lawsuit settlement

Supervisors unanimously approved the transfer of $12 million needed to pay a settlement that they approved late last year.

The settlement stems from an officer-involved shooting that happened in February 2020. County personnel director Monica Fugitt said supervisors approved the settlement on Dec. 5.

The $12 million is to pay a legal settlement in a lawsuit filed by the family of Thomas Barbosa, who was shot and killed during a shooting involving a sheriff’s sergeant, Auditor-Controller Nolda Short told the Record Searchlight the night before Tuesday’s meeting.

The money is being transferred to the county’s Risk Management Department so that the settlement payment can be made.

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The transfer request was on the board’s consent agenda and the item did not say who the county was paying the money to. Consent agenda items are considered routine and non-controversial and typically voted on as a group.

Supervisors Crye, Tim Garman and Chris Kelstrom had the item pulled so it could be discussed. “I support this, I just wanted to get the information to the people,” Garman said.

Crye, who is chairman of the board, said it’s his job to work with County Executive Officer David Rickert to set the agendas for supervisors’ meetings.

“So, when this comes from staff to put on consent, it’s very rare that I, in the time that I have been chair, have moved anything off the consent. I let other supervisors or myself pull it and tend to go with what staff recommends in terms of what we’re laying out in terms of regular items versus consent,” Crye said.

David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on X, formerly Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta election deniers question results that show Crye recall losing