Shasta County is facing another important election — and more voting uncertainty

As a devout Republican who owns a cattle ranch and proudly owns a gun, Shasta County Supervisor Mary Rickert is an unlikely progressive icon.

But that's exactly what the 72-year-old Catholic and devout grandmother has become for others in this northern California state — which has been beset by conspiracy theories about voter fraud and other extremist views for the past three years.

Rickert is still a die-hard fan. But he has also emerged as an often lone voice on the Board of Directors against the insurgency that has gripped his district.

After taking most of the reins in 2022, the board voted abandon the Dominion vote machines in favor of hand-counting votes. The administration passed the measure allowing concealed weapons in local government buildings in violation of the law of the land. And they check hiring a California secessionist leader as the chief executive officer of the district. Rickert, whose personal style is characterized by feathered brown hair and flowing scarves, contradicted much of what they did.

On Tuesday, voters in his district, which stretches from Redding to the Falls and the eastern mountain peaks, will decide whether to give him another term. His challenger is local business owner Corkey Harmon, who said on his website that he is running “to protect our god-given rights and our rural way of life.”

Some residents of the region say that the contest is about the future politics of the region.

In recent years, Shasta County has drawn national attention for its embrace of voting conspiracy theories and 2nd Amendment and anti-vaccination causes. Board meetings have been disrupted by shouting matches and senior staff have been fired or quit. Election workers, they say face to face being threatened. An unknown person installed a hunting camera in the lane behind the election office in 2022.

John Deaton joins others in a demonstration calling for the firing of Shasta County Supervisor Kevin Crye during a rally in Redding.

(Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press)

But there are signs that voters are tired of being the far-right's poster child.

Board president and gun shop owner Patrick Jones he lost his election in the spring for a moderate candidate and will leave the board in January. Another Lt. Allen Long of the Redding Central Police Department, was appointed to fill the vacant seat.

Meaning, if Rickert keeps his seat, the right-wing will lose their majority on the board.

Residents of the district say it is difficult to predict what will happen if his opponent wins. Harmon stated on his website that he is “affiliated with no party. I am not part of any Super Pacs or special interest group.” He did not respond to The Times' requests for an interview. In a public statement posted on his website, he has not been clear on many issues affecting the district, although he told a local television station that he believes the district has a responsibility to “fight back. back” against other laws of the country.

“As a governor, we have a duty to fight back, to go to our members of the legislature and say no … This is against our rights,” he said. “The state is too powerful. We all know they are, which causes us grief in many ways… We don't need to go into all the details of that.”

Doni Chamberlain, local reporter and fan of Rickert news website has spent years recounting the chaos that has erupted in local government, said voters in the state's Supervisory District 3 are facing a choice that will define the state. “The future of Shasta County depends on this race,” he said.

But regardless of what happens in that race, there are signs that further turmoil may continue. On Wednesday, the county announced that its new voting machines were failing to count votes correctly.

The county bought the equipment after dumping Dominion and a A new state law has prevented you from counting by hand. The district also got a new registrar after Cathy Darling Allen, the district's only elected Democrat, resigned because she had heart problems and needed to reduce stress.

Mail-in ballot envelopes are processed at the Shasta County Voter Registration office in Redding in February. The Shasta County Board of Supervisors last year voted to do away with vote counting machines and planned to conduct elections by hand. The California Legislature later passed a law banning hand-counting of election votes, except in narrow circumstances.

(Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press)

The new registrar, Tom Toller, said his office had discovered a “problem with surface ink” that was preventing our election machines from processing those ballots. He said the error was not visible to the naked eye and was not detected during the pre-election inspection.

He said Nevada County, which uses the same equipment, has the same problem. He added that it was not known how many of the 117,000 votes issued for his constituency were affected; about 32,500 votes have already been cast by voters.

And this week, Shasta County's election official he told news website CalMatters that he has quit his job because the election observers were crowded in the office in a scary way. Some onlookers were “very angry,” Tanner Johnson said.

“They want to catch us in a lie, so they're going to try to trick you into saying something,” Johnson said. “A lot of times they'll be secretly videotaping or recording you.”

Toller confirmed that the employee quit because “we saw a very negative election climate, and we felt threatened by that.” He called it a “huge disappointment” because Johnson was “a very good employee.”

He added that election observers are “very aggressive in pursuing their agenda,” which he said often encourages hand counting, which is illegal.

He said: “Things have become very controversial. “The tone is very aggressive.”

Toller said he hopes for a calm election night, but law enforcement plans to patrol and “we have to prepare for everything.”

Shasta County voters overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, and many expect them to do the same this year. What is questionable in the election is whether the voters will support Rickert or Harmon.

In a video introducing himself to voters posted on a local television station's website, Harmon laid out his priorities. He described himself as a “common man who believes in local control” and said his values ​​are more in line with the county's rural areas than Rickert's.

His video did not say anything about the controversies that have put his region in the national news. He said one of his goals is to stop “conflicts” between board members and that he is committed to improving public safety.

Rickert, meanwhile, argues that he is a candidate with the experience to help the district. He said he wants to stabilize the county's workforce, which has been disrupted by all of this turmoil, and make sure the $39 million the county expects to receive for opioid shelters is spent properly.

He said he would like nothing more than to retire and spend time with his grandchildren, but he couldn't find a moderate Republican willing to run.

“I want to focus on restoring our district's finances,” he said. “This is an important moment in the history of Shasta County.”