Shasta County faces another key election — and more uncertainty about the vote

As a devoted Republican who runs a cattle ranch and proudly talks about owning a gun, Shasta County Supervisor Mary Rickert is an unlikely progressive icon.

But that’s exactly what it’s become for some in this northern California county — which has been convulsed by conspiracy theories about voter fraud and other extremist ideologies for the past three years.

Rickert is still a staunch conservative. But she also emerged as an often lone voice on the Board of Supervisors against a far-right insurgency roiling the county.

After an ultra-conservative majority took over in 2022, the council voted cast the Dominion vote machines in favor of counting the ballots. The supervisors passed a measure to allow concealed weapons in local government buildings in defiance of state law. And they explored hiring a secessionist leader from California as executive director of the county. Rickert, whose personal style tends toward feathered blonde hair and flowing scarves, argued against much of what they did.

On Tuesday, voters in her district, which stretches from Redding to the waterfalls and mountaintops of the east, will decide whether to give her another term. Her 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 county residents say that the contest is also about the future political direction of the county.

In recent years, Shasta County has garnered national attention for its embrace of voting conspiracy theories, along with Second Amendment and anti-vaccine causes. Board meetings were interrupted by shouting matches, and senior staff were fired or dismissed. Electoral workers, meanwhile, they say they faced intimidation. An unknown person installed a hunting camera in the alley behind the election office in 2022.

But there are signs that the electorate is tired of being a far-right poster child.

Chairman of the board and owner of a gun shop Patrick Jones he lost his election in the spring to a more moderate candidate and will leave the board in January. Another moderate, retired Redding police lieutenant, Allen Long, was tapped to fill a vacancy.

Which means that if Rickert keeps his seat, the far-right will likely lose its majority on the council.

County residents say it’s harder to predict what will happen if her opponent wins. Harmon said on his website that “his affiliation is not with any group. I am not part of any Super Pac or special interest group.” He did not respond to interview requests from the Times. In public statements he has posted on his website, he has not taken a clear position on many of the hot-button issues that have rocked the county, although he he told a local television station that he believed the county had an obligation to “fight” against some state laws.

“As a supervisor, we have a duty to fight back, to go to our legislators and say no … This is against our rights,” he said. “The state is exaggerating. We all know they are, causing us pain in many ways… We don’t need to go into all the details of that.”

Doni Chamberlain, local journalist and Rickert supporter whose news site has spent years chronicling the chaos that has blighted local government, said voters in the county’s Supervisor District 3 face an election that will define the county. “The future of Shasta County depends on this race,” she said.

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

The county acquired the cars after dumping Dominion and a the new state law blocked her from counting hands. The county also got a new recorder after Cathy Darling Allen, the county’s only elected Democrat, resigned because she had heart failure and needed to reduce stress.

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

Nevada County, which uses the same cars, has a similar problem, he said. He added that it was not known how many of the 117,000 ballots issued by his county were affected; approximately 32,500 ballots have already been handed in by voters.

Also this week, a Shasta County election official told news site CalMatters that he quit his job because election observers were crowding into his office in an intimidating manner. Some observers are “very upset,” 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 will secretly film or record you.”

Toller confirmed that one employee quit because he “felt the climate around the election was too hostile and felt threatened by it.” He called it “a big disappointment” because Johnson was an “excellent employee”.

He added that election observers “have become much more aggressive in pursuing their agenda,” which he said in many cases advocates counting hands, which is illegal.

“Things have become more adversarial,” he said. “The tone is more aggressive.”

Toller said he was hoping for a quiet election night, but law enforcement was planning patrols and “we have to be prepared for anything.”

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

In a video introducing himself to voters, posted on a local television station websiteHarmon laid out his priorities. He described himself as “a true conservative who believes in local control” and said his values ​​are more in tune with the district’s rural voters than Rickert’s.

His video made no mention of the controversies that have repeatedly put his county in the national news. He said one of his goals is to stop “infighting” among council members and is committed to improving public safety.

Rickert, meanwhile, says she’s the most experienced candidate to help fix the county. She said she wants to stabilize the county’s workforce, which has been disrupted by all the turmoil, and make sure the $39 million the county expects to receive from the opioid settlements is well spent.

She said she would have liked nothing more than to retire and spend time with her grandchildren, but she couldn’t find a moderate Republican willing to run.

“I just want to focus on getting our county finances back in order,” she said. “This is a pivotal moment in Shasta County’s history.”