While elections may be the outrage du jour, officials and longtime residents in Shasta and beyond are concerned the damage to civic life will be permanent.
Election observers Susan Wilson, Susanne Baremore, and Tom Morehouse watch through a window as poll workers process ballots at theShasta County Elections office in Redding, California, on November 7, 2023. This story is a collaboration with Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S.
It’s taken a toll. Darling Allen, 55, had no history of heart problems. But in November, she was diagnosed with heart failure. Doctors say stress was a factor, and told her that in order to stay alive, she would have to. She went on medical leave in December and officially retired as the county’s registrar of voters in early May, two years before her latest term was scheduled to end.
“We are in the third grade,” whispered Joanna Francescut, Darling Allen’s deputy, who began to lead the department in her absence. “This isn’t a big city. We can’t just stop talking to each other,” said lifelong resident Jenny O’Connell, who comes to the board of supervisors meetings each week and begs for civility. “‘Oh, gee, I’d love for my kid to go, but those other kids are there. I’d love to go to dinner, but the wrong people own that restaurant.’ It’s going to start breaking down our economy.”
When O’Connell approached the microphone at a supervisors meeting the following week, she was in tears, struggling to get the words out. Poll workers process ballots at the Shasta County Elections office in Redding, California on November 7, 2023.Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMattersin a county of Shasta’s size. Jones pressed it anyway, championing the establishment of an election commission to investigate voter fraud, which has been roiled since its inception by.
“The thing with Patrick, I think,” said District 1 Supervisor Kevin Crye, who supports Jones and credits him with his own entry to politics, “is that sometimes he has two different experiences, combines them, and tells them as one story.” And even though her deputy, Francescut, has stepped in as the registrar since she went on leave, Darling Allen finds Jones still looms large. The waitress who served Darling Allen her salt-free breakfast thanked her “for her service” and apologized for her treatment before asking when the results of Jones’ race would be announced.
When those results came before the board of supervisors in early April, Jones announced he had no intention of certifying the election. His gripes were many and varied: Francescut, following in Darling Allen’s footsteps, had violated vaguely described laws. He described rules for auditing results, which appeared to have no basis in state law, that were also violated. He was confident, he said, that the rest of the supervisors would agree that the results were so flawed as to be invalid.
For her part, Darling Allen doesn’t find this explanation comforting. During his first race in 2022, Crye — who runs a successful chain of Ninja Warrior gyms — visited her office daily to observe vote counting. Elections staff took pains to engage with him, answering questions about the process. “We spent hours with him explaining how things worked over multiple days, and he was pleasant and understood,” she said, concluding about his 2023 rejection of Dominion machines, “His vote was two-faced.
In 2018, a camper trailer scraping pavement ignited what would become the second most devastating fire in California history — the Carr Fire, named for the intersection at which it started. Before it was completely contained that August, the blaze destroyed 1,100 homes in Shasta County. Many were never rebuilt.of a local megachurch, Bethel.
At a meeting in April, Francescut explained an extended absence after last November’s election: Her father-in-law had died after a two-year battle with cancer. A man in the audience — whose dog took up the width of the aisle next to his seat, secured by a rope leash — saw an opportunity.Francescut said she’s mostly unfazed by the treatment. Raised in what she described as “the Ruby Ridge part” of Idaho, she says she’s learned not to take political disagreements personally.
Francescut thinks the supervisors have more influence on tone than they realize, but — as of mid-June — she is no longer the target of the rage being voiced in their meetings. Last week, after two days of public interviews, the board of supervisors voted 3-2 to hire retired prosecutor Tom Toller to fill Darling Allen’s position through 2026. Toller has never run an election or volunteered as a poll worker.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
How election conspiracy theories tore apart this remote Northern California countyOfficials and longtime residents are concerned the damage to civic life will be permanent in Shasta and beyond
Read more »
Philly northern lights forecast: Is another opportunity to view northern lights possible?Will the Delaware Valley have another opportunity to see the Northern Lights Friday night? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, released information Thursday regarding that very possibility.
Read more »
Bay Area man sentenced to life after committing sexual assault in Northern CaliforniaAzel Maynard has an extensive criminal history involving multiple felonies and prior strikes. In October 2021, Maynard was convicted by plea of robbery in Solano County where he was to be sentenced…
Read more »
Beloved surfboard-stealing otter spotted again off Northern California shoreLast summer, otter 841 terrorized surfers in Santa Cruz, California, biting surfboards and even hijacking them. Now she has returned.
Read more »
8 Northern California middle school students arrested for assault on 2 peersEight Northern California middle school students who police say carried out a planned assault on a fellow student have been arrested
Read more »
8 Northern California middle school students arrested for assault on 2 peersEight Northern California middle school students who police say carried out a planned assault on a fellow student have been arrested. The attack occurred Friday at Sinaloa Middle School in Novato, north of San Francisco.
Read more »