County Supervisors canceled their contract with Dominion Voting Systems last month over unproven concerns of voter fraud.
Now, Board Chair Patrick Jones wants to get rid of machines all-together, and count votes entirely by hand.
Deputy Secretary of State Susan Lapsley came up to Shasta County on Tuesday to answer questions about Jone鈥檚 proposal to eliminate voting machines.
鈥淧eople make mistakes,鈥� Lapsley said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard, it鈥檚 tough to sit here during the board meeting but can you imagine sitting at a table for eight hours and doing this [hand-counting ballots]? It鈥檚 tough and it鈥檚 a lot of hard work.鈥�
Lapsley said hand-counting is less accurate and more expensive than machines. backs that up.
Lapsley also mentioned a hand-count effort in Nye County, Nevada last year, where the error rate was estimated to be after the first day.
Shasta County supervisors voted three to two to direct staff to explore an alternative option to cast and count ballots. They鈥檙e expecting staff to return with a plan within a month, because any pilot voting system needs to be submitted for approval by the Secretary of State nine months in advance of an election.
The next election is the March 2024 presidential primary, although County Clerk Cathy Darling Allen said some municipalities have asked for special elections in August and October. That means an approved voting system would need to be available before any local election could take place.
Board Member Kevin Crye has been the swing vote for election matters. In Tuesday鈥檚 meeting, he voted to accept a grant from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a nonprofit focused on voting modernization. The $1.5 million grant would go to the elections department, which said they鈥檇 use it towards buying a permanent office building instead of leasing out their current space.
But Crye joined the other side in voting to explore a voting pilot program. He said a big concern has been the threat of lawsuits over a possible voting system that isn鈥檛 certified by the state and doesn鈥檛 meet the needs of disabled voters.
During the meeting, Crye dropped a surprise for everyone, saying he鈥檇 been in touch with Mike Lindell, a prominent election fraud conspiracy theorist. Crye said Lindell supports this effort in Shasta County and will put some money in an escrow account to be used to pay for legal fees, should the county face a lawsuit over this proposed voting system.
Lindell is currently by Dominion Voting System for $1.3 billion. The company claims Lindell promoted false claims that Dominion voting machines were rigged during the 2020 election, all in an effort to boost sales at his pillow company.
Crye did not mention how much money Lindell was putting into an escrow account, and wouldn鈥檛 answer further clarifying questions from Board Member Mary Rickert.
鈥淚t just seems, in my mind, crazy to change horses in the middle of all this when we don鈥檛 have something settled on the other end,鈥� Rickert said.
Many residents, including the county clerk, had serious concerns that going without a certified voting system would deprive people with disabilities of their right to vote independently.
That right was enshrined in federal law in 2002 as the Help America Vote Act.
It requires every polling place to have at least one machine that allows people with disabilities 鈥� such as blindness or requiring a wheelchair 鈥� to vote independently and secretly, just like everyone else.
The costs to change voting systems could be over $1 million, including the cost to remove leased equipment from Dominion and re-train staff on using the new system.
鈥淭his is a heavy lift on top of our regular duties,鈥� said County Clerk Cathy Darling Allen.
Board Member Crye proposed going back to Lindell and asking him to pay for the removal of Dominion voting equipment, priced at around $78,000.
That proposal received harsh criticism from Rickert and Board Member Tim Garman over the optics of an election fraud conspiracy theorist funding elections-related matters in the county.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e trying to save the county by putting it up for sale,鈥� said Garman.
The board ultimately decided to take no action on picking a new voting system, by a vote of 3-2.
The county will officially terminate its contract with Dominion Voting Systems after a local election set for March 7 in Shasta Lake.
Because Shasta County does not have an approved voting pilot system in place, and they haven't signed a contract with a new vendor, the county cannot currently run any elections.
