In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors decided to hand-count ballots for future elections. This comes after months of heated debate surrounding the legality and feasibility of the plan.
Supervisors Kevin Crye, Patrick Jones, and Chris Kelstrom voted in favor, while Supervisors Tim Garman and Mary Rickert voted against.
The county needs a new voting system after it canceled its voting machine contract with Dominion Voting Systems over unfounded claims of voter fraud earlier this year.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the board weighed partnering with an existing state-certified voting system company, or developing its own system for hand tallying ballots. To comply with state and federal laws, the county has to provide some type of voting machine accessible to citizens with disabilities. There are three electronic voting machine companies approved by the California Secretary of State. Those companies are Dominion, Hart InterCivic and ES&S.
"We cannot ditch the machine without having something in place," said Tim Garman during the meeting. "I'm not going to open up our county to that liability, to those lawsuits. It would not be fiscally responsible to do so."
Ahead of the meeting, Shasta County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen sent a letter to the board that included an analysis of what her office would need to do a full hand-tally of ballots. She wrote that if the board opts for a full manual tally, “it must plan to provide at a minimum the $1,651,209.68 and 1300 staff members … necessary to implement a full manual tally.”
In the letter, Darling Allen expressed concerns that a new system that relied on a full hand-count may not be ready in time for a special election that may occur in August.
At the meeting, she continued to urge the board to either rescind the cancellation of its contract with Dominion, or partner with another certified voting company rather than hand-tally the vote.
"I've spent the last two and a half years defending a process that is not broken," she said. "We are spending all this time talking about a process that is not broken."
There are many details that need to be worked out under the board’s current proposal, including paying for implementing a hand-tally and ensuring the new system is accessible to those with disabilities in compliance with state and federal laws. Once the county outlines its proposal, it must be approved by the California Secretary of State.
