Elections Office Faces Suddenly Busy Schedule

Just a few months ago, the local election calendar was wide open. But the ballot-casting landscape shifted in August, when proponents in Blue Lake secured enough signatures to move forward with a recall against one of the three councilmembers targeted. At the same time, the California Legislature placed a mid-decade redistricting measure before voters in a special election on Nov. 4.

Suddenly, there was a lot of work for the county’s Elections Office to complete in a very short time frame. How short? Less than half the time it normally takes to get all the details ironed out, Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes recently told the Journal.

“Through the miraculous work of my staff, we are a little ahead now,” Cervantes said earlier this month, as ballots for the Proposition 50 question were being readied to send out to the county’s nearly 83,000 registered voters.

But ballots are just one part of the logistics. There are polling spaces to be opened and operated, drop-off ballot boxes to be placed, and polling place workers to be hired and trained. The latter, he said, was “a big lift.”

“It’s a big scale up from seven people to 157,” Cervantes explained, adding that the effort was made a bit easier by the office’s shift from a volunteer-only system to paid temporary staff. “It’s a broader net and makes it so more folks could participate in the process,” he said, reflecting on his own first foray into elections work at a polling place when he was a teenager.

About Proposition 50

The ballot initiative, if approved, would temporarily set aside congressional maps drawn by the state’s independent, nonpartisan commission that oversees redistricting — until the next census in 2030. The proposition, dubbed the “Election Rigging Response Act,” is, as the name denotes, quite partisan and a reaction to the Trump administration’s nationwide gerrymandering push aimed at securing more Republican seats in the Capitol before midterm elections.

The basic idea is to match tit-for-tat the five seats Texas moved to be more favorable to Republican candidates under the Lone Star State Legislature’s redrawing effort. Currently, California Democrats hold 43 of the state’s 52 seats in the House of Representatives.

A release from Governor Gavin Newsom’s office shortly after the state Legislature approved placing Proposition 50 on the ballot described the action as “an opportunity this November to push back against President Trump’s power grab in Texas and other Republican-led states.”

Conversely, opponents describe the initiative as a political power grab that “dismantles safeguards that keep elections fair, removes requirements to keep local communities together, and eliminates voter protections that ban maps designed to favor political parties.”

Under the proposed map, Humboldt would remain in the Second District while northeastern Modoc and Siskiyou counties would be added along with Shasta County. Portions of Mendocino and Sonoma counties would shift over to the First District.

Financial and Logistical Challenges

One early concern expressed by Cervantes and other officials statewide was the financial impact of a special election if counties had to pay upfront from the same funds used for essential services like the sheriff’s office, while waiting for reimbursement.

This issue was resolved when the State Controller’s Office issued checks in late September to cover the costs, including Humboldt County’s $839,000 share of the estimated $251 million total needed “to administer the statewide special election,” according to an email from SCO press secretary Bismarck Obando.

“It’s a breath of fresh air to go into an election like this with resources and funding,” Cervantes said, allowing the office to execute the election “in a way that does right by the constituents and voters.”

He also hopes this payment might set a precedent for the state to cover “some of the election bill” in regularly scheduled elections, rather than the county “picking up the state’s tab.” Currently, those costs are split between the county and cities even when state and federal issues dominate the ballot.

Upcoming Blue Lake Recall Election

Cervantes emphasized the work facing his office during an Aug. 27 Blue Lake City Council meeting, when members considered delaying a decision on when the recall would take place by two weeks.

“It would be a great courtesy to us if you could handle this during this meeting,” he told the council. “We have a lot on our plate and being able to plan out, we need every day that we can be given.”

In the end, the council scheduled the recall for Jan. 6 during a Sept. 9 special meeting, meaning voters in the city will face two elections within a couple of months.

While the November election is still upcoming, Cervantes said his office will be ready to send ballots to Blue Lake in the first week of December. The city will cover the estimated $10,000 to $12,000 cost for the mail-in only, single-subject ballot for its nearly 1,200 residents.

Key Dates and Resources

The last day to register to vote in the statewide special election is Oct. 20. For information on polling places and drop-off box locations, visit the county Elections Office website at humboldtgov.org/890/Elections-Voter-Registration.

“We are geared up and ready to make this thing happen for you all,” Cervantes said.

Kimberly Wear (she/her) is the assistant editor at the Journal. Reach her at 442-1400 or [email protected].

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