Shasta County special election on Tuesday: no hand counting due to number of voters, vote tabulating machines will tabulate votes
AENN
by Tyler Van DykeMon,
November 6th 2023, 6:15 PM PST
Several small issues are on the ballot for a special election in Shasta County on Tuesday, the vote totals for it almost taking a back seat to how they will be counted. (KRCR)
Shasta County, Calif. — Several small issues are on the ballot for a special election in Shasta County on Tuesday, the vote totals for it almost taking a back seat to how they will be counted.
A press conference was held Monday morning by Shasta County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen to address the media before the election.
RELATED | Shasta County voters to decide on formation of Shasta Fire Protection District and Gateway Unified school board vacancies in upcoming special election
A very scrutinized topic over the last few months has been about hand-counting ballots in elections going forward and how this election would work after the passing of AB 969, a state law mandating machines to be used in elections with more than 1,000 registered voters.
However, for this special election, they will not be hand-counting ballots, as Darling Allen said in the press conference Monday that the number of registered voters far exceeds the less than 5,000 needed to do a hand count in a special election.
Darling Allen mentioned the numbers are in the range of 9,500 eligible voters as of now for the election.
They will be using the Hart InterCivic Vote Tabulating Machines that the county purchased before the passing of the state law to tabulate votes.
People may also be wondering what may be different about the process for this election, Darling Allen said not much should change for voters.
“Voters shouldn’t see too much difference, except for those folks who are accustomed to coming into the office, here, and scanning their ballot. We no longer have scanners, that was part of the Dominion equipment and the board was very clear they did not want scanners,” Darling Allen said. “So when folks go in to vote, if they bring their ballot with them, they will surrender that ballot to the poll worker, the poll worker will issue them a new precinct ballot they will vote that in their booth and then they will drop it into a box and then those ballots will be brought back for central tabulation.”
Although they won’t be hand counting this election, Darling Allen explained what it would look like if used in future elections,
“As an example one of the things that we have to do is count all of the precinct ballots on election night, which we do now, electronic tabulation makes that possible in a fairly expedient way, it would take for March’s election for example days for us to count just the election day votes, we also are not allowed under the hand-counting rules to process vote by mail ballots and by process that means open the envelopes, unfold them, and get them ready to be counted, that also delays the process.”
The measures on the ballot are Measure A which is the proposed formation of the Shasta Fire Protection District to establish a stand-alone Shasta Fire Department and fire prevention district.
Measure B has to do with a Shasta Community Services District Tax, regarding a parcel fee, which would be a special fee to help fund the creation of the district if Measure A was passed.
If the fire district formation vote is unsuccessful, a $20 per parcel tax will still be collected and will go to the Shasta County Fire Department’s general fund.
There are also offices up for election, three seats are up for the board of directors for the Fire Protection District.
Also on the ballot is a vacant board member seat for the Gateway Unified School District Board, where voters will vote between Camille King and Casey Bowden.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and are open until 8 p.m.
