6.20.24 7:09 am: We have corrected the date when the District Attorney’s term ends.
Two days of Shasta County Board interviews for Registrar of Voters culminated in a shocking moment for some seated in the chambers on Wednesday afternoon, June 19.
That’s when a majority of supervisors, including Kevin Crye, Chris Kelstrom and Patrick Jones, chose Tom Toller, a former Shasta County Deputy District Attorney without any elections experience, to become the county’s top elections official.
If Toller, age 62, passes a background check, he’ll be appointed as Shasta’s new County Clerk and Registrar of Voters to fill the rest of former ROV Cathy Darling Allen’s term, through 2026.
Toller beat out eight other candidates who sat for interviews over the last two days. Supervisors Tim Garman and Mary Rickert opposed his appointment.
Toller told the media he was surprised, pleased and very gratified to have been chosen for the job.
“My greatest hope,” Toller said, “is that I can bring some transparency to the [Elections] Office and increase people’s confidence in how we process votes here in Shasta County.”
“I want to get to work,” he emphasized.
Members of election staff may be less eager for him to do so. Toller told the Board during his interview process that he would be “reevaluating” staff and conducting “retraining” for those that remain under his leadership. He also highlighted his experience with terminating employees and administering non-disclosure agreements. But Toller told Shasta Scout that Elections Office staff shouldn’t be concerned.
“My objective is not to go in there and tear the place down, sweep everyone out,” Toller said. “It’s to truly go in there and find out who’s there, what their passions are, what their skills are and then begin finding a team that can move forward.”
Supervisor Rickert worried publicly about whether elections staff might leave anyway, given Toller’s lack of experience in running elections and the the decision not to appoint their boss, Assistant County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Joanna Francescut, who was also interviewed for the role and who has sixteen years of experience in administering elections.
During Francescut’s second interview, a number of her staff entered the meeting where she was speaking and lined up against the back wall to listen. After a few moments, Rickert mentioned their presence in the room, saying it indicated Francescut’s healthy leadership.
“We’ve asked her about her leadership style,” Rickert said. “Her leadership style takes up the whole wall. They are a devoted, dedicated staff.”
At Rickert’s mention of her staff’s presence, Francescut turned briefly to the back to catch sight of her staff, smiling at them before returning her focus to the Board.
Toller said if he loses significant staff, he will call for volunteers to fill those roles. He clarified later that he isn’t actually sure yet if using volunteers for those staff positions is legal, but he’ll find out.
“If the state requires pay for them, or training for them,” Toller told Shasta Scout, “I’m absolutely going to implement that. I’ve never had any prior experience with actually hiring or recruiting those sorts of employees. I’ll have to get up to speed on that.”
One big question is whether Francescut herself might leave the Elections Office. Her experience administering thirty local elections and helping to process over 1.3 million votes would be invaluable to Toller, but he told the Board her ideas on elections processes may already be “solidified”, a down check in his mind.
Crye, who championed Toller’s appointment, seems to hope Francescut will stay. He told her publicly that she would be perfect for the role as the County’s top Elections Official, “just not right now.” Crye suggested Francescut could possibly take charge in two years, after learning from the perspective of a new leader.
“She’s not going to learn how to run elections,” he explained to Shasta Scout later. “It’s more about (learning) a certain lens of how to look at things.”
“It’s like, hey, here’s the direction we’re going,” Crye continued. “Can you get on board with that?”
He meant “getting on board” with a perspective different than the one Francescut has been trained under, that of her former elected boss, Darling Allen.
Longterm former ROV Darling Allen who was elected by 68% of the vote in the 2022 election, has been villainized by the Board over the last few years for her approach to elections, including her decisions to follow state law instead of the Board’s will on hand counting.
During her interviews, Francescut faced repeated scrutiny from some members of the Board for a variety of Darling Allen’s actions. At one point, Supervisor Patrick Jones accused Francescut of election mal-conduct regarding how an offer of grant funding was handled under Darling Allen’s supervision last year.
Francescut responded by emphasizing over and over that she should not be judged by Darling Allen’s choices, saying she thinks for herself.
Francescut told Shasta Scout she has no comment, for now, on her professional plans moving forward.
The new perspective Crye and others on the Board are looking forward to under Toller’s leadership includes his willingness to push back on the California Secretary of State’s interpretation of election law.
Toller cited that willingness in his cover letter to the Board, saying he is “a firm adherent of the federal system enshrined in both the Constitution of the United States and in the Constitution of the State of California.” He also declared his intent to question California’s chief elections official on election matters, saying he would “in no way be beholden to the Secretary of State in Sacramento, as if her interpretation was chapter and verse of Holy Writ.”
Toller did not include any letters of recommendation in his application to the Board and was not supported by any public comment. Both deficits stand in sharp contrast to Francescut, who received more emails of support than any other candidate, according to Supervisor Rickert, and whose reference letters include endorsements from the Placer County’s Clerk of Elections, the Contra Costa Clerk of Elections and the Anderson Union High School District Superintendent.
According to his application materials, Toller worked for the Shasta County District Attorney’s for a total of nine years, leaving in 2017, the same year the current District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett, took office. Toller mentioned in his cover letter that he supported her opponent, Erik Jensen, during the 2022 election.
Like former ROV Darling Allen, Bridgett has been vilified by the Board, most recently for the way she distributed Zogg Fire settlement funds. In response to those accusations, California’s Attorney General has said Bridgett’s actions in the settlement were in line with the law. Bridgett will be up for reelection in 2028. An election for the ROV position will be held in 2026 with Toller’s appointed term ending in early 2027.
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Toller has no clue about elections or how they should be run. He thinks he is going to learn how to run things and conduct an election by November??
He’d better pray that Joanna stays to help him out…
This is devastating for Shasta County.
It’s a planed perfect fit. We have 3 pompous delusional ignorant idiots working to destroy Shasta County, who don’t blink an eye at damaging the people of Shasta County, throwing employees under the bus, or issuing contracts to their cronies. Good ol Toller, an ignorant attorney as far as elections go, was picked on purpose to pick on the voters of Shasta County, and institute the Jones – Crye scorched earth Armageddon between the State of California and Shasta County. And in a way, I hope the JCK + CEO + Toller fools succeed landing us in court. That way the state could come in and clean up this insolent, ignorant MAGA insanity, so that the people of Shasta County can reinstate Safe and Sane governance.
Toller went to Hasting College of Law. He has been a member of the bar since 1988. He is a former DA, I think he will get up to speed fast. The outgoing Clerk worked at a hotel before going to work at county Clerk’s office. She was an English major in college.
Cathy, like many of us, has had several jobs throughout her life, but immediately prior to her selection as the ASSISTANT ROV for Shasta County, she had been a county employee with the Department of Social Services for many years. During her time in county employment, she added to her already significant amount of knowledge, skills and abilities and promoted into higher level positions requiring strong and ethical leadership abilities. She was then selected as the ASSISTANT ROV for Shasta County where she was trained and mentored by the then ROV prior to their retirement.
Jones, Crye and Kelstrom totally scammed the public today. Their behavior today was both callous and manipulative. I was ashamed
Thank you for the news. One small point of clarification: Sheriffs and District Attorneys in California recently had their terms extended so the elections would line up with presidential elections starting in 2028. Bridgett (and Mike Johnson) will next be on the ballot that year.
Shasta Rocks: checking into that now. Thank you so much for the heads up.
Crye sees himself as the peacemaker “of sorts“ with the general public and the extreme right that regularly attend the board meetings and those that sit on the board -himself, Jones and Kelstrom. They believe their political beliefs should be the rule of the county -the “local control” he constantly promotes failing to recognize there are many that do not care for his politics. Continuing to hire inexperienced persons to key roles has led to a huge exodus of those with institutional knowledge weakening our county governance and stability. Public safety is still a major problem and on the minds of many. Too many deals have been made by the current board majority that have benefited themselves personally while ignoring the public concerns . Even the mayors of the local cities tried to address the board recently. Has anything improved??
I will be rethinking my participation as a poll worker this November
As a poll worker myself, I’m trying to decide about that very issue. Since Joanna is going to stick around (for now, at least), I’m going to hold off on retiring from that position for now. If Joanna goes, I’m gone.
A lot of people will be eating crow if Judge Baker invalidates a Shasta County election result because of all the laws broken by the elections office under the temporary leadership of Joanna Francescut
Your MAGA is showing. The only violation they found is they used the wrong randomization scheme (They used the state for local, and the local for state).
I think Judge Baker is going to see this for what it is (Throw all the poo on the wall and see what can stick) and throws out Mrs. Hobbs case.
By no means a complete list of legal violations from the primary election:
They repeatedly used a local alphabet randomization in contests requiring state randomized alphabetic order.
They failed to notify the public of the local randomization drawing so it could be witnessed.
They certified Long’s primary election to supervisor despite him only receiving votes on 46% of ballots cast instead of a majority as required.
They failed to allow observers to get close enough to witness signature verifications.
PS: not that your attempted ad hominem attack is in any way relevant to these statements of fact, but I am not nor have I ever been a MAGA supporter.
It is very important to follow the letter of the law when it comes to elections. Following strict protocols is required of the job. If that was not done in 2022 it should have been and there is no excuse for it.
On the matter of etiquette when commenting I suggest it does not matter how a person votes. Therefore the use of labels are not appropriate when replying to a comment. We all want honest elections, straight down the middle application of the law.
They did make mistake with the randomized alpha drawing. A mistake.
They certified Long’s primary election results correctly. From your comments on anewscafe, you have shown that it is you that has a misunderstanding of the laws allowing this.
Regarding the observers, even the Shasta county grand jury found that Shasta county elections appropriately followed the law. You can go read that report yourself.
You are mixing a little bit of fact with a lot of fiction, and you should really feel ashamed of yourself.
This of course is directed at Jay Dagget, aka J. Noble Dagget as she is known on anewscafe.
It’s also a little bit telling that on the movie True Grit J. Noble Dagget was basically being used as a bluff.
1) The grand jury did not investigate the many legal violations of the March primary, they investigated 2022 and 2023 elections.
2) Yes, Joanna Francescut violated election code § 15104(d) in the March 5 primary by keeping observers too far to see signatures. She admitted as much to Mike Mangas on KRCR and finally moved observers closer on March 18 – 2 weeks into the process.
3) She violated election code § 13112 (b)(1)(C)(ii) (ballot order) on multiple contests
4) She violated election code § 13111(i) by failing to notify the public of the time/place of the randomized alphabetical draw for the 2 races that use local random draws as specified in § 13112(c)
5) She violated election code § 8140 by electing Long to supervisor directly from the primary despite his failure to get votes from a majority of ballots cast in his district (5,140 votes / 11,713 ballots cast = 46.2%)
*5,410
@ J. Noble Daggett and accomplice:
I like how you are trying to misrepresent things here with your choice of words how she ‘violated’ the law.
For whatever reason you’ve always had a personal grudge against Cathy and Joanna, and it shows.
@J. Noble Daggett: Bottom line is there was a mistake that was made because of all the distractions from the so-called observers and the board. Still no evidence or proof of any maliciousness, fraud, rigging, or any intent to undermine the world of people with their votes.
It’s also quite interesting that you like to post under a ton of different handles to make it seem like there are more of you than there really are.
There is no misrepresentation: Francescut violated election law frequently & severely enough to alter the outcome of 1 contest. Your argument that the 16-year elections office veteran was merely ignorant and incompetent rather than malevolent doesn’t reflect highly of the experience she did obtain under Cathy Darling-Allen.
Well dagnabbit, let’s leave all the other things that you are conveniently leaving out:
1. Cathy was told by Jones that she had to prove that there was no election fraud occurring. You have all people should know that you can’t prove a negative.
2. With absolutely no proof of any type of wrongdoing or fraud or even negligence, The Dominion contract was broken and the elections department had to develop a hand counting tally system that would still be within California law.
3. The elections department developed this hand tally counting system while still preparing for an upcoming election. It was not an insignificant amount of time or money that was used on this endeavor.
4. After all of that, AB 969 put a halt to hand counting so that everything was for naught.
5. The elections department had to learn how to use a new voting system.
6. Cathy had to go out on leave because the medical condition that was developed from all the threats and harassment from the so-called observers.
7. Joanna had to prepare for an upcoming election and all of the complexities of California election law, and also be “transparent” for all of the observers demanding her time. (And she was transparent by the way.)
8. Even with all of this going on, Joanna still had to insist that Shasta county elections would follow the law even when the board was pressuring her to break it. (Just slightly distracting, wouldn’t you say?)
9. Did I mention all the PRA requests?
There’s a lot more that I could add about all the distractions that she had to deal with, but the bottom line is it boils down to a MISTAKE. She was insisting that the elections department followed the law when the board was telling her to break the law.
But somehow, you are trying to portray her as willfully “breaking the law”.
You really ought to be ashamed of yourself.
This is insanity, he has No Clue what it takes to hold an election. There are so many moving parts to pull it off and unless he has 100% cooperation of the existing staff he will fail. And I know lots of workers will walk out if Joanna doesn’t get the job so good luck to the three MAGA supervisors trying to destroy our elections it’s happening now.
This seems to follow the Trump mentality of ” Don’t like them fire them”
0_o What could possibly go wrong. I can’t even with these people. This just feels like November and beyond is going to be a nightmare here.
Excellent choice that supervisors have chosen former Shasta county deputy DA Tom Toller. I would’ve chosen Clint, Curtis, but life goes on.
This is great tutelage for Joanna Francescut to learn from a professional attorney for the next two years.
Because Joanna already knows her Job, Mr. Toller only has to point her to do this or that.
Citizens! It’s time to clean up our elections, voter rolls, pursue to go back to hand counting.
Hopefully with this Charter County passage coming January we can eliminate AB 969 and electronic voting machines.
We shouldn’t have to conform to the crap of the California Democrat controlled Legislature and Secretary of State.
Shasta county is a rural county, not a big city metropolis. The Democrats have ruined the big cities with their policies and election securities. It’s total chaos with this party. Do not let them ruin Shasta County.
Wow! Your comments are a perfect example of some of the ignorance, arrogance and narrow minded thinking by a small loud minority. That is what is ruining our community. So sad.
Happy Citizen: What is ruining our community is a small loud group of extremists who promote conspiracy theories and their own personal agendas. It appears that they would rather destroy everything than work together to make things better for all. How is it that the Supervisors who claim election fraud were themselves elected using the very machines that they threw out? What a sad mess they have created!
Long time resident! Stay happy and live long.
I am trying to figure out how you are assuming that someone who is not well versed in election law can show a tenured employee.
And I also wonder where your county would get the funding to do conduct a hand counted ballots. The cost alone would bankrupt your county.
Happy Citizen- if Toller can’t stand on his own two feet from day one as ROV he needs to stay retired. Joanna already knows the job and works well with election and county clerk staff and other county departments. Only idiots like Crye, Jones and Kelstrom would choose to replace the person with all the attributes needed for the job. Are you a member of the small alt right radical extremists that love to show up at meetings and the election office not to contribute but to distract and disrupt? What these three good ole boy supervisors don’t want is anyone who won’t cater to their political bias. Non-partisan is a joke to them. Crye’s comment that Joanna would be “ready in a couple of years” was a slap in the face. I hope she considers going to another county to “gain the two years of knowledge” Crye thinks she needs rather than help a semi retired senior learn on the job. She’d certainly be appreciated and welcomed in a neighboring county. In the meantime we could watch Toller really sweat ….
I’ve lived here all my life (Over 50 years) and either you are a troll or an idiot to think ANYTHING you have said is true. The whole MAGA movement has fractured this country, let alone this county and those in the MAGA column have no clue that they are in fact the “Sheeple” that they protest so much about.
MAGA are traitors to democracy and want authoritarians like Putin, but settle for his tool.
You have no clue what it would take to hand count 70,000 ballots on multiple races. Humans are the ones that make mistakes.
And yet Shasta County’s March manual tally was 100% accurate while the Hart machines miscounted 4 out of 14,727 ballots (99.97% accuracy)
There has never been a large academic study of the accuracy of California’s 4-person manual counting system – or any other established 4 person manual count – but studies have found Wisconsin’s 3-person manual counting system to be 99.98% accurate.
Happy Citizen…U R out of touch with reality…AB969 can only be overturned by the CA Supreme Court, not gonna happen.
Rallying cry to CEO Rickert and Toller…if Ms Francescut is going to stay and tutor Toller, who’ll already be over his head come the end of August, then Ms. Francescut should demand a raise in pay, that’s only fair for having to instill CA Election Laws which he must uphold. If Crye & Gang think he’s going to be their puppet, they have another crazy idea that’s not gonna happen. Call the CEO and strongly suggest he make it right with Francescut.
PS when things go awry because of Toller, it’s Blue Sick Day time from staff.
Great to know what’s happening in local government. Keep it up ShastaScout. Maybe it will get more citizens involved in the process.
Oh trust me, it is getting more people involved in the election process.
This is getting more people to rally behind Joanna than ever.
Frank Treadway! No need to tread on positive political advancements in Shasta County. Stay on course and don’t take the beaten path.
And with that, Happy Citizen put their cards on the table: hiring Toller was a political move (“political advancement”). It had nothing to do with perceived issues in our elections process.
The political minority wanting to replace Joanna are the same people who chose to fire Karen Ramstrom because they didn’t like that she wouldn’t break the law to do their bidding. They’ve wanted Kathy and Joanna out for the same reason.
It is irrelevant to them that Toller can’t do the job. They just want him to help them legally to fight the laws they (and their following all over the country) don’t like.
They can’t back down because they are in the national spotlight and they would disappoint the people who are looking up to them and egging them on. Their actions have nothing to do with representing their constituents (Kevin sure made THAT clear)!
With their words they tell us they love the Constitution. With their actions, they show us that democracy to them means they get THEIR way. Even if they have to cheat and lie to get it.
With their actions, they show us that they despise the First Amendment by making choices and rules to severely limit the public’s access to speak to the BOS and by applying double standards (instead of their own rules) to allow people who share the Board majority’s political views to have “freedom” of speech. (Which isn’t really freedom in those meetings, it’s more like permission.)
Be aware that Toller will not be working this election. The 3 amigos (like Toller) don’t apparently know much about how the County or the real world operates. Toller will not be able to contribute anything but chaos.
Toller has to pass a background check which might take a month. If he passes, he can’t start until the first day of a payroll period – could cost another two weeks. By the time he’s actually set up and ready to start receiving training (from the person he will now boss around) it could likely be August. Most people need at least 3 months to get their bearings in a complicated new job.
Joanna will be shouldering her responsibilities and the ROV’s responsibilities all while she will be distracted by training her new boss – in the middle of running an election.
Those who put Toller in charge better be prepared for a flood of errors because you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip. And they’d better put ALL of the responsibility for every single error squarely on the shoulders of the man they chose to sit in that position for POLITICAL reasons. Surely he will be simply sitting in that seat creating more problems than if that seat were vacant.
Expecting even an extremely intelligent individual to “get their bearings” in 3 months in such a complex and demanding job as the ROV is so far out of the realm of possibility, especially when you add in the responsibilities of the County Clerk. You need only look at Laura Burch and the chaos she continues to create in the HHSA after more than two years in her role as the agency director. She is a perfect example of the turmoil created by appointing individuals to leadership roles for which they lack the knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience.
You are absolutely right on both counts. I didn’t communicate well that by getting their bearings I meant understanding what their job actually is, not at all that they would be trained and know how to do their job (let alone do it well). There is clearly no way on earth Toller could even be helpful this upcoming election, let alone be able to do the job he will be raking in the bucks for not doing.
And you are right – the Biard has no business putting Laura in her position either. Turmoil and chaos in the elections department will hopefully be kept to a dull roar as Joanna leads the charge and staves off too much interference from Toller.
Well, it sucks he was appointed, there’s no changing that. I hope Mr. Toller is aware that the stress of this job nearly killed the previous ROV (who was younger and in better shape). This job is more than just sitting in a cushy office pointing fingers and having staff do your bidding, there is a very physical aspect as well. The Market St. building, where the elections are conducted, is quite large, has a lot of stairs, and an elevator that doesn’t work sometimes. I foresee Toller either resigning after the upcoming election, or going out on Workman’s Comp. We should be so lucky.
Joey Johns,
It’s only for 2 1/2 years and he’ll be ready for Social Security.
Really?? That’s the person that you’re throwing all your support behind?
Someone who’s going to bail after two and a half years?
The stress was because of Jones, Crye and the rest of their MAGA Cult basically harassing and lambasting her into heart failure. Seriously, they don’t like strong women in positions of leadership, and their misogyny shows loud and clear.
Once again the terrible trio have made a bad decision for the citizens of Shasta County by appointing a person with no experience to a critical position and bypassing a candidate with 16 years experience. Having been a poll worker, I know a bit about how many moving parts are involved in the election process and the ROV is not an on-the-job training position months before a critically important presidential election. As much as my husband and I believe in participating in our election process, we will be re-thinking working the polls this year.
Lind,
Don’t give up on Mr. Toller and Joanna. Do your contributing participation has a poll worker. And thank you for your past service.
That is assuming that Joanna will stick around. If I was Joanna, I would walk right out and go someplace where my due diligence and hard work was appreciated. But that’s just me.
Once again Shasta County was screwed by the “voting block” created by the three members of the BOS. If you remember those three supervisors, as candidates, were supported by the Shasta Liberty Committee in the first election. Goggle that and see if that is the kind of government we want. Too bad the new supervisors couldn’t have taken office right after the election. Things might have been different then.
I will be celebrating my 90 birthday in January. I have been a registered and voting person for 69 years
I have ever seen such irresponsible choices by our 3 member super majority.
50 years ago a was an election worker in LA – I can in no-way guarantee those results and we had no other options.
Crye sits on the board by way of 50 votes
Jones is a lame duck
Kelstrom might be a lemming
Toller says he will confront Secretary of State who follows the LAW of the state of California
Bless this city and the inhabinets who think!
Sad day in Shasta County. Imagine a BOS that represented their constituents rather than hiring a puppet to do their bidding. Crye, Jones, and Kelstrom are jokes and shouldn’t be allowed to make any decisions. Voting them in was a huge mistake and none of their far right supporters will ever admit it. They may go down in California history for being some of the worst supervisors ever. Of course they gave themselves a raise as well, proving even more… how self serving they are. I blame them but I also blame the uneducated voters who fell for their BS. Sad day for Shasta County