Shasta supervisor vows to ignore new California law forbidding election hand counts
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill that bans hand counts in elections in all but the smallest jurisdictions in California, setting up what could be a political and legal collision in Shasta County over whether manual or machine tallying will happen in the next election in November.
AB 969, which targeted Shasta County’s controversial move to eliminate machine tallies in local elections, was signed by Newsom on Wednesday.
The bill is an urgency statute, so it takes effect immediately.
Shasta County Board of Supervisors Chairman Patrick Jones said Wednesday he had been expecting the governor to sign the bill.
The new law will not affect Shasta County’s plans to hand count ballots in the November 2023 and presidential primary election in March 2024, Jones said.
“I've asked legal counsel to weigh in on this. And I believe that it does not affect Shasta County,” Jones said. “We already made that decision to get away from machines in January and February. We have been waiting this entire time for the Secretary of State, which she said she would approve a hand tabulation plan. She has yet to do so. So she's simply dragging her feet on this. But we have already made our decision. And a majority of the board has already spoken.”
https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2023/10/04/gov-newsom-signs-bill-to-essentially-ban-hand-counts-in-elections/71065022007/