Efforts by Shasta County Supervisor Patrick Jones to discredit the Elections Department have apparently backfired on him. Last year, Jones prompted the formation of the Citizens Elections Advisory Commission, an unpaid oversight panel with no real power except to make recommendations to the board. Jones appointee to the commission was Bev Gray. A couple of weeks ago Jones accompanied Gray to record a commercial claiming that ballots were being sent to the wrong people and other irregularities. There’s no indication it was true, but the spot urged people to report errors to a phone number, which turned out to be a private number. The staff member who produced the commercial thought Gray was on official business issuing a public service announcement, thus the record was not placed in the company’s publicly accessible online political file. Finding it to be misleading, county administrators issued a terse press release about the spot, which had already been taken off the air. KQMS News reported Jones’ involvement, but he denied any connection, even though the invoice shows it was billed to Jones Fort, a business owned by the Jones family. Then during an election day interview on KRCR Jones played the commercial from his laptop computer. That caught the attention of the California Secretary of State’s Office and an investigation is now underway. On Saturday Jones’ wife called KQMS and said on the air that her husband had received death threats. Any questions by voters should actually be directed to 225-5730 or emailed to elections@co.shasta.ca.us. There has been no evidence presented that indicates any questionable conduct whatsoever involving the Elections Department.