Some Shasta County political races may not be ready to call as the unprocessed ballots still far outnumber those that have already been counted. The tally currently represents approximately 17,000 ballots. As of Wednesday the Elections Office still had 30,165 unprocessed ballots. That number may go down as election workers verify signatures and eligibility. It also may increase as valid ballots postmarked by election day will be accepted through the 12th. Assistant Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut says the lag in the count is due to the fact that no tabulation took place at precincts, and the whole process had to be done at the Elections Office. The voter turnout was not as bad as it initially appeared. If all the ballots received turned out to be valid, there would be around 52,000 of them, from a pool of nearly 113,000 registered voters. The next update from the elections office will come Friday afternoon.
It appears that a major overhaul is coming for the Shasta County Board of Supervisors. The recall of Kevin Crye from District One leads by 53% to 47%. In District Four, Matt Plummer has a comfortable lead of 61% over Patrick Jones with 39%. In the District Three race, Mary Rickert shows 44%, so she’s unlikely to take the race outright but will face a runoff in November with either Corkey Harmon or Win Carpenter, who are currently neck-and-neck with around 28% each. Harmon has about a half percent lead. In the crowded District Two race there are four candidates, but Allen Long may avoid a runoff anyway as he currently has 55% of the vote, followed by Laura Hobbs with 17%, Dan Sloan with 16% and Susanne Baremore with 12%.
Shasta county’s two ballot measure are both on a path to victory, though one of them is still in question. Measure C would limit county supervisors to two terms and it shows an overwhelming 76% support. Measure D would change Shasta County from a common law government and would instead adopt a charter for more local control. The yes votes for Measure D are showing 53%.