The decision by the Shasta County Board of Supervisors to dump Dominion voting systems and conduct hand tally elections will be costly, and those costs are just beginning to make themselves known. A presentation during this week’s supervisors meeting show a cost increase for the 2024/2025 fiscal year that could exceed $4 Million. Although some of that cost would be recouped by charging other agencies for the cost of placing their contests on the ballot, there are an unknown number of as-yet-unseen expenditures. The manual tally will bring the Elections Department into unknown territory. Additional needs that are already predictable would be building, renovation and maintenance expenses, recruitment costs, equipment and security needs, special elections, and additional staff for the tremendous task of counting tens of thousands of ballots by hand.